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F^LIX    FAURE.    PRESIDENT    OF    THE    REPUBLIC. 


jo^  ^Q^-y  c^ 


THE 


EVOLUTION  OF  FRANCE 


UNDER  THE 


THIRD   REPUBLIC 

BT 

BARON   PIERRE   DE   ^OUBERTIN 


TRANSLATED  FROM  THE  FRENCH 

BT 

ISABEL   F.    HAPGOOD 


^xitt0ri^ct)  iEbition 


WITH  SPECIAL  PREFACE  AND  ADDITIONS 

AND 

INTRODUCTION   BY  DR.  ALBERT  SHAW,  EDITOR  OF 
"THE  REVIEW  OF  REVIEWS" 


NEW  YORK:  46  East  14th  Street 
THOMAS   Y.   CROWELL  &  COJ^IPANY 

BOSTON:  100  Purchase  Street 


J- ^"^7 


COPTEISHT,  1897, 

Bt  T.  T.  CROWELL  <fe  CO. 


Norinooti  ^rrss 

3.  8.  Cmhing  &  Co.  -  Berwick  &  Smith 

Norwood  Mas§.  U.S.A. 


INTRODUCTION. 


Just  a  hundred  years  have  elapsed  since  the  first 
French  Republic  attained  apparent  stability,  with  high 
prestige  and  virtual  paramountcy  throughout  Europe. 
The  political  fortunes  of  France  since  that  time  have 
been  full  of  a  strange  and  seemingly  capricious  variety. 
As  one  looks  back,  however,  over  the  course  of  things 
since  the  revolutionary  neriod,  it  becomes  plain  not 
only  that  the  last  quarter  of  the  hundred  years  has 
been  by  far  the  best  epoch  for  the  French  people,  but 
also  that  the  caprice  and  contradiction  of  French  politi- 
cal history  have  been  rather  upon  the  surface  of  events, 
while  the  real  life  of  the  nation  has  unfolded  by  proc- 
esses of  development  which  make  the  present  order 
in  some  true  sense  the  logical  and  necessary  outcome 
of  all  that  has  gone  before.  It  has  not  been  the  task 
of  our  author  in  the  present  volume  to  treat  of  the 
entire  century.  He  finds  it  desirable,  nevertheless, 
briefly  to  recite  his  philosophy  of  the  political  evolu- 
tion of  France  since  the  first  Napoleon.  His  views 
seem  to  me  to  disclose  not  merely  a  typical  French 
aptitude  for  generalization  and  the  rationale  of  things, 
but  further  than  that  a  justness  of  judgment  and  a 
reasonableness  that  inspire  the  utmost  confidence. 

In  his  prefatory  remarks  M.  de  Coubertin  frankly 
admits  the  difficulties  under  which  the  writer  of  con- 
temporary history  must  labor  ;  but  he  also  claims,  very 
rightly,  a  number  of  peculiar  advantages  as  respects 

iii 


iv  INTRODUCTION. 

the  sources  of  information.  The  present  volume  seems 
to  me  a  most  admirable  instance  of  the  judicious  use  of 
the  current  mass  of  available  material,  by  a  student 
and  observer  whose  methods  are  thoroughly  workman- 
like, whose  temper  is  well-nigh  perfect,  and  who  pos- 
sesses a  scientific  habit  of  accuracy  combined  with  an 
artistic  sense  of  proportion.  M.  de  Coubertin  has 
given  us  what  is  at  once  a  discussion  of  the  nature 
and  workings  of  the  French  political  system,  and  a 
vivacious  narrative  of  the  principal  events  in  the  politi- 
cal and  general  history  of  France  since  1870,  with  an 
analysis  of  the  contemporary  life  and  character  of  the 
French  people.  The  first  French  edition  of  this  work 
(^L' Evolution  Frangaise  sous  la  Troisieme  MSpublique^ 
made  its  successful  appearance  in  Paris  some  months 
ago.  It  is  to  be  observed  that  the  present  edition  — 
translated  for  American  and  English  readers  by  Miss 
Isabel  F.  Hapgood  with  her  well-known  fidelity  and 
skill  — has  been  extended  and  revised  at  various  points 
by  the  author  himself,  in  order  to  adapt  it  the  better 
for  America  and  the  English-speaking  world.  Thus 
M.  de  Coubertin  has  wisely  added  many  notes  which 
supply  names,  dates,  and  political  details,  while  also 
assigning  more  space  to  personal  characterizations  of 
the  men  whose  names  are  entitled  to  appear  m;qminentlv 
in  a  history  of  these  recent  times  in  France.  |  The  Baron 
de  Coubertin  is  abundantly  competent  thus  to  give  the 
revisory  touches  that  would  adapt  his  work  for  students 
and  general  readers  in  the  two  great  English-speaking 
lands,  because  he  knows  both  England  and  America 
remarkably  well,  and  is  in  closer  sympathy  and  rela- 
tionship with  Anglo-Saxon  life  and  institutions  than 
almost  any  other  of  his  fellow-countr}-men. 

Although  still  a  young  man,  'SI.  de  Coubertin  has 


I^'  TR  OB  UCTION.  V 

acquired  a  broad  point  of  view  through  wide  travel  and 
deep  study.  He  is  peculiarly  qualified,  therefore,  to 
interpret  the  institutions  of  his  own  country  for  the 
benefit  of  Americans  or  EnglishmenTy  No  foreigner 
could  have  written  certain  chapters  in  this  book  with 
the  insight  that  the  author  displays.  On  the  other 
hand,  no  Frenchman  not  exceptionally  familiar  with 
the  history,  politics,  and  social  life  of  America  and 
England  could,  in  the  writing  of  a  book  like  this,  have 
rendered  a  direct  service  to  English-speaking  readers 
while  primarily  addressing  his  own  countrymen.  The 
international  and  comparative  cast  of  mind  has  come 
to  be  as  second  nature  with  M.  de  Coubertin,  —  a  thing 
that  can  be  said  of  very  few  Frenchmen.  In  that  re- 
gard he  is  the  De  Tocqueville  of  our  day.  Quite  as 
De  Tocqueville,  now  more  than  sixty  years  ago,  visited 
the  United  States  and  England  in  order  to  write  books 
which  should  interpret  American  democracy  and  Eng- 
lish life  to  the  Frenchmen  of  the  '30's  who  had  just 
placed  Louis  Philippe  on  a  "throne  surrounded  by 
Republican  institutions,"  even  so  M.  de  Coubertin  has 
for  some  years  past  been  busily  studying  and  interpreting 
to  the  3'oung  men  of  the  Third  Republic  certain  phases 
of  English  and  American  life  which  he  has  believed 
might  well  be  incorporated  into  the  French  scheme  of 
existence.  M.  de  Coubertin  is  a  philosophical  observer 
and  a  constructive  reformer ;  and  since  he  is  one  of 
the  really  notable  and  remarkable  young  men  of  our 
day,  —  belonging  also  peculiarly  to  the  student  world, 
—  it  is  fitting  that  something  of  his  life  and  career 
should  be  known  to  Americans. 

tfrhe  Baron  Pierre  de  Coubertin  is  the  scion  of  a 
family  now  old  in  France,  where  it  has  been  domiciled 
for  somewhat  more  than  four  hundred  years.     It  came 


vi  INTRODUCTION. 

originally  from  Italy,  by  favor  of  King  Louis  XI.,  who 
conferred  honors  and  titles  upon  the  head  of  the  house. 
The  family  came  to  be  known  by  the  name  of  Couber- 
tin  some  time  after  1650,  by  virtue  of  the  fact  that  its 
principal  seigneurie  was  situated  at  Coubertin,  near 
Versailles,  in  the  renowned  valley  of  Chevreuse.  The 
Baron  Pierre  de  Coubertin,  with  whom  we  have  to  do, 
was  born  on  the  1st  of  January,  1863.  His  life  and 
career  have  thus  far  been  noteworthy  chiefly  on  the 
educational  side.  He  was  educated  in  Paris,  first  at 
the  Jesuits'  day-school  in  the  Rue  de  Marat,  known  as  the 
ficole  Saint  Ignace,  and  afterwards  in  the  University  of 
Paris,  where  he  obtained  successively  the  degrees  of 
bachelor  of  arts,  bachelor  of  sciences,  and  bachelor 
of  law.  He  also  took  a  post-graduate  course  in  politi- 
cal science  at  the  Ecole  des  Sciences  PolitiquesW" 

It  was  in  1884,  when  only  twenty-one  years  of  age, 
that  M.  de  Coubertin  began  his  visits  to  England, 
with  the  prime  object  of  acquainting  himself  inti- 
mately with  the  life  of  the  great  public  schools, — 
Rugby,  Eton,  Harrow,  and  the  others  of  that  type.  He 
had  become  strongly  convinced  that  there  was  an  ele- 
ment in  English  education  that  was  sadly  lacking  in 
the  French  schools.  Obviously  and  conspicuously,  the 
English  training  in  athletics,  and  the  English  devotion 
to  outdoor  sports  and  exercises,  were  almost  totally 
unknown  in  the  French  lyceums  and  collegiate  insti- 
tutes. But  Coubertin  clearly  perceived  that  some- 
thing even  more  serious  was  concerned  than  the  mere 
question  of  physical  culture. Y  He  understood  that  in 
the  rowing,  football,  and  cricket  of  the  English  schools, 
and  all  their  other  games,  contests,  and  field-day  exer- 
cises, there  was  involved  an  element  of  moral  discipline 
and  strength  that  supplied  in  some  sense  a  key  to  the 


INTRODUCTION.  xi 

enlistment  of  American  interest  in  this  ambitious  pro- 
ject for  a  modern  quadrennial  tournament  of  games  and 
sports  that  should  be  open  to  amateurs  —  particularly 
those  of  the  student  class  —  from  all  nations,  was  much 
facilitated  by  M.  de  Coubertin's  second  visit  to  the 
United  States,  which  occurred  in  1893.  He  had  the 
honor  to  come  again  with  a  commission  from  his  gov- 
ernment ;  for  he  had  been  appointed  one  of  the  organiz- 
ing committee  of  the  French  section  at  the  World's 
Fair,  while  also  designated  by  the  World's  Fair  authori- 
ties at  Chicago  as  one  of  the  honorary  heads  of  the 
Cojig^ess  on  Higher  Education. 

I^He  improved  this  opportunity  to  visit  the  Pacific 
coast,  where  he  inspected  the  University  of  California 
at  Berkeley,  the  Leland  Stanford  University,  and  other 
institutions.  In  each  of  these  two  California  univer- 
sities, as  well  as  at  Princeton,  and  in  Tulane  at  New 
Orleans,  M.  de  Coubertin  founded  a  debating  prize 
that  will  make  his  name  familiar  to  many  future  gener- 
ations of  American  students.  This  prize  takes  the 
form  of  an  annual  medal  awarded  to  the  best  student 
debater  on  some  subject  relating  to  French  politics  or 
political  history.  M.  de  Coubertin's  object  in  found- 
ing these  very  interesting  contests  in  forensics  was  to 
promote,  among  the  educated  young  men  of  the  United 
States,  a  better  acquaintance  with  France  through  a 
discussion  of  French  politics  every  year  in  several  uni- 
versities. Before  leaving  this  country  in  the  autumn 
of  1893  he  had  aroused  a  very  general  interest,  espe- 
cially in  the  college  world,  in  his  plan  for  the  Olympic 
games. 

A  little  later,  in  the  early  weeks  of  1894,  he  was 
actively  at  work  in  England  holding  conferences  and 
forming  his  committee  for  the  promotion  of  the  idea  of 


xii  INTRODUCTION. 

the  quadrennial  athletic  tournament.  In  June  of  that 
year  the  subject  was  taken  up  by  a  great  conference  or 
congress,  held  at  the  Sorbonne  in  Paris,  a  dozen  or 
more  nations  being  represented.  King  George  of  the 
Hellenes  sent  his  best  wishes;  and  the  eight-day  confer- 
ence, with  its  accompanying  fetes  and  sports  in  the 
Bois  du  Boulogne,  was  fairly  successful,  resulting  in 
the  formation  of  an  international  committee  to  carry  the 
Olympic  plan  into  effect.  It  was  decided  that  the  first 
games  should  be  held  in  Greece  in  1896,  with  the 
further  understanding  by  common  consent  that  the  com- 
petitions of  1900  would  be  held  at  Paris  as  a  feature  of 
the  proposed  international  exhibition,  while  somewhat 
more  vaguely  it  was  anticipated  that  the  games  of  1904 
would  be  held  in  the  United  States.  M.  de  Coubertin 
then  betook  himself  to  Athens,  with  the  result  of  form- 
ing an  enthusiastic  Greek  committee  and  perfecting 
plans  for  the  first  games,  with  the  Crown  Prince  of 
Greece  as  presiding  officer  for  the  occasion.  The 
games  as  they  actually  occurred  at  Athens  in  1896  at- 
tracted a  world-wide  attention ;  and  the  illustrated 
articles  in  which  they  were  described  in  the  periodical 
press  of  every  part  of  the  civilized  world  would  fill  a 
nuijjber  of  volumes. 

)  Meanwhile,  M.  de  Coubertin  had  been  married  to 
Mademoiselle  Rothan,  daughter  of  the  late  M.  de  Rothan, 
who  was  a  distinguished  ambassador  and  well-known 
author.  In  the  past  two  years  his  pen  has  been  unusu- 
ally busy  ;  for,  besides  the  present  work  on  France 
under  the  Third  Republic,  he  has  completed  a  volume 
on  his  recent  travels,  entitled  Souvenirs  d'Amirique  et 
de  Grrece.  Furthermore,  he  has  contributed  a  number 
of  important  articles  to  the  leading  French  journals  and 
reviews,  besides  a  series  for  the  (American)  Review  of 


INTRODUCTION.  xiii 

Reviews^  and  still  other  literary  work.  As  illustrat- 
ing M.  de  Coubertin's  thoroughness  as  a  student  and 
worker,  I  may  be  permitted  to  remark  that  at  my  sug- 
gestion he  has  written  some  of  his  articles  in  English. 
To  have  acquired  English  after  attaining  manhood,  and 
to  be  able  not  merely  to  read  and  speak  the  language, 
but  to  write  it  for  publication  with  full  command  of 
vocabulary  and  with  an  excellent  use  of  idioms,  is  an 
unusual  thing,  particularly  for  a  Frenchman.  M.  de 
Coubertin's  mastery  of  English  is  simply  an  indication 
of  his  earnestness  and  persistence  in  all  things  to  which 
he  may  have  set  his  hand. 

Our  author's  study  of  the  political  history  of  his  own 
country  during  the  past  quarter-century  would  seem  to 
me  to  show  a  rare  talent  for  political  and  institutional 
history.  For  the  very  reason  that  he  belongs  to  the 
new  generation,  and  did  not  therefore  participate  in 
the  events  that  followed  the  catastrophes  of  1870,  he 
finds  it  the  easier  to  render  even-handed  justice  to  all 
the  men  and  parties  that  were  active  at  that  time.  I 
have  not  read  any  book  which  shows  with  such  convinc- 
ing logic  as  M.  de  Coubertin's  the  relation  of  one 
movement  in  French  politics  to  another.  His  charac- 
terization of  men  is  remarkably  just  and  felicitous. 
Thiers,  MacMahon,  Gambetta,  Jules  Ferry,  Gr^vy,  De 
Freycinet,  Jules  Simon,  Carnot,  Boulanger,  Cl^men- 
ceau,  —  these  and  many  others  stand  out  in  clear  relief, 
and  one  feels  that  with  a  few  skilful  touches  the  au- 
thor has  given  us  true  and  trustworthy  portraiture. 
Furthermore,  his  study  of  constitutional  modes  and 
parliamentary  methods  shows  a  remarkable  power  of 
analysis  and  discrimination. 

Nothing  could  be  better  in  its  way  than  his  argument 
for  parliamentary  government  as  tending  by  virtue  of 


XIV  INTRODUCTION. 

its  very  instability  and  fickleness  to  gi^  the  Republic  a 
real  security.  With  ministerial  rigidity  there  might 
in  France  be  danger  of  revolution ;  but  where  it  is  so 
easy  to  make  and  unmake  ministries,  the  popular  emo- 
tions expend  themselves  harmlessly,  and  the  great 
mechanism  of  government  goes  on  undisturbed.  M. 
de  Coubertin  of  course  lays  due  stress  upon  the  value 
of  the  permanent  organization  of  governmental  busi- 
ness, under  chiefs  who  do  not  change,  and  who  owe 
their  loyalty  to  their  bureaus  or  departments  and  to 
the  country  itself,  rather  than  to  parties  or  ministries. 
Our  author  would  certainly  not  be  so  optimistic  and 
easily  satisfied  as  to  extol  the  constant  changing  of  cabi- 
nets as  the  ideal  arrangement ;  for  he  would  not  fail  to 
admit  that  better  results  would  be  secured  from  a 
higher  degree  of  ministerial  stability.  Nevertheless, 
he  makes  a  strong  argument  to  show  that,  thus  far  in 
the  life  of  the  Third  Republic,  the  quick  responsiveness 
of  ministries  to  the  veerings  of  public  opinion  as  ex- 
hibited in  the  chambers  has  made  for  strength  rather 
than  for  weakness. 

For  the  vitality  of  the  Third  Republic  lies  precisely 
in  the  fact  that  it  has  been  an  essential  unfolding  of 
the  latent  capacities  of  the  nation  itself  for  its  own 
self-ordering  and  self-direction,  —  an  Evolution,  as  M. 
de  Coubertin  happily  phrases  it  in  the  title  of  his  book. 
If  the  Republic  had  been  a  creation  rather  than  an 
evolution,  it  might  have  come  to  disaster.  If  indeed, 
as  some  men  wished,  the  Third  Republic  had  been 
placed  under  the  guarantees  of  a  rigid  constitution,  — 
which,  like  our  own  American  organic  law,  could  not 
be  changed  at  any  point  without  processes  practically 
requiring  years  of  discussion  and  an  almost  unanimous 
consent  in  the  end, — the  lack  of  elasticity  would  have 


INTRODUCTION.  XV 

provoked  revolution,  and  the  very  object  sought  for 
would  thus  have  been  lost.  As  our  author  shows,  the 
Empire,  through  the  force  of  events,  ceased  to  exist 
on  the  4th  of  September,  1870.  But  the  organized 
political  life  of  the  French  nation  went  on  ;  and  the 
Republic  was  the  only  normal  possibility.  It  was 
simply  the  nation  governing  itself  under  a  formula 
for  which  no  adventitious  claims  were  asserted,  and 
which  the  nation  was  at  perfect  liberty  to  reject  at 
any  moment  it  chose. 

After  a  little  time,  the  organization  of  the  Republic 
began  to  take  on  a  higher  degree  of  differentiation.  A 
second  chamber  seemed  to  correspond  well  to  the  facts 
and  conditions  of  the  national  life,  and  a  Senate  was 
provided.  This  has  thus  far  shown  itself  a  valuable 
balance-wheel,  because  less  impulsive  than  the  Chamber 
of  Deputies,  more  sober  and  deliberate  in  its  methods, 
and  more  stably  representative  of  the  main  trend  of  the 
nation's  best  opinion  and  intelligence.  It  has  been 
capable  of  firm  influence,  while  avoiding,  for  the  most 
part,  the  obstructive  and  irresponsible  attitudes  that 
have  in  recent  years  so  justly  brought  criticism  upon 
the  American  Senate  and  the  English  House  of  Lords. 
Our  author  shows  himself  thoroughly  appreciative  of 
the  value  of  the  Senate  in  the  mechanism  of  the  Third 
Republic. 

The  practical  evolution  of  the  office  of  the  Presidency, 
from  M.  Thiers  and  Marshal  MacMahon,  through  the 
long  period  of  M.  Gr^vy,  down  to  the  assassination 
of  President  Carnot,  is  presented  most  instructively. 
Nothing  better  illustrates  M.  de  Coubertin's  method 
in  this  volume  than  his  treatment  of  just  such  a  sub- 
ject. There  is  not  a  paragraph  devoted  to  abstract 
discussion  of  the  question  of  presidential  responsibility, 


xvi  INTRODUCTION. 

or  the  relation  of  the  head  of  the  state  to  the  prime 
minister  and  the  cabinet ;  but  every  delicate  phase  of 
that  very  important  matter  of  constitutional  law  and 
practice  is  set  forth,  with  all  the  author's  unfailing 
lucidity,  by  the  more  attractive  method  of  concrete 
narration.  Thus  we  are  shown  how  the  able,  experi- 
enced, and  conscientious  Thiers  conceived  of  the  nature 
of  his  presidential  duties  ;  and  the  principles  involved 
are  duly  revealed  as  the  events  recited  by  our  author 
brought  these  principles  into  evidence  and  caused  them 
to  be  tried  and  discussed.  M.  de  Coubertin's  light 
upon  the  character  and  aims  of  Marshal  ]\IacMalion 
is  especially  welcome,  because  its  high  praise  of  the 
man  himself,  as  a  patriot  with  an  unfailing  sense  of 
his  duty  under  the  constitution  as  President,  is  tem- 
pered at  all  points  by  full  recognition  of  the  errors  of 
judgment  which  MacMahon  undoubtedly  committed. 

One's  confidence,  indeed,  in  M.  de  Coubertin's  com- 
petency as  historian  of  the  Third  Republic  increases 
from  page  to  page,  as  one  notes  the  evidences  of  fair- 
ness, and  sees  how  calm  and  objective  is  his  discern- 
ment. It  is  so  rare  a  thing  to  find  the  sympathetic 
faculty  and  the  constructive  imagination,  conjoined 
with  the  trained  and  alert  employment  of  the  critical 
habit  of  mind.  It  is  this  combination  of  gifts,  —  sym- 
pathy to  interpret,  imagination  to  unify  and  correlate, 
analytical  insight  to  make  just  distinctions,  together 
with  industry  in  research,  accuracy  in  detail,  and  the 
sense  of  form,  proportion,  and  style,  —  that  has  given 
me  a  high  regard  for  the  work  of  this  author,  and  a 
belief  that  it  is  entitled  to  international  recognition. 

But  to  return  from  the  author  to  his  present  work, 
it  is  enough  perhaps  to  remark  that  we  are  led  step 
by  step  in  the  course  of  the  narration  to  see  how,  from 


INTRODUCTION.  Xvii 

a  Republic  which  stood  for  self-government  in  the  sim- 
ple form  of  the  National  Assembly,  there  came  to  be 
definitely  evolved  the  two  chambers  with  their  appro- 
priate functions ;  the  presidency  with  its  influence  and 
dignity ;  and  the  cabinet,  — responsible  not  to  the  presi- 
dent but  to  the  legislative  chambers,  representing  the 
governmental  policy  of  the  day,  and  yielding,  with  a 
responsiveness  that  from  some  points  of  view  might 
seem  demoralizing,  to  the  demands  of  public  opinion 
as  expressed  through  the  deputies.  It  was  the  purpose 
of  Gambetta,  whose  qualities  and  patriotic  services  are 
fully  appreciated  by  our  author,  to  consolidate  factions 
into  main  parties,  in  order  to  give  more  meaning  and 
dignity  to  parliamentary  cabinet  government.  He  be- 
lieved that  much  could  be  accomplished  in  that  direc- 
tion by  the  mere  electoral  device  of  choosing  deputies 
in  groups  on  general  department  ticket,  rather  than 
singly  in  the  arrondissements.  But  parties  are  not  the 
outcome  of  mere  election  arrangements.  Greater  sta- 
bility in  French  cabinet  government  must  needs  come 
by  the  slower  evolutionary  processes,  working  in  the 
sphere  of  public  opinion.  The  late  M.  de  Laveleye,  in 
conversations  upon  this  point  some  years  ago,  assured 
me  that  he  was  one  of  many  European  students  of  com- 
parative constitutional  government  who  had  lost  faith 
in  the  system  of  parliamentary  responsibility.  He 
preferred  the  American  system  of  a  cabinet  responsible 
to  the  president,  doing  executive  tasks  for  a  fixed  term, 
and  carrying  on  their  work  in  their  own  offices  without 
either  the  right  or  the  duty  of  appearing  from  day  to 
day  in  the  legislative  chambers,  there  to  seek  support  for 
policies,  or  to  initiate,  defend,  or  explain.  But  if  the 
parliamentary  system  has  its  disadvantages,  —  and  we 
certainly  have  oo  occasion  to  seek  its  introduction  in 


XViii  INTRODUCTION. 

the  United  States,  — there  is  much  force  in  our  author's 
answer.  This  continual  process  of  the  making  and 
unmaking  of  cabinets,  far  from  evidencing  the  weak- 
ness and  uncertain  footing  of  the  republic,  is  the  best 
present  device  for  enabling  the  ship  of  state  to  keep  its 
buoyancy  and  seaworthiness.  Under  such  a  system, 
the  republic  itself  comes  to  be  an  object  of  common 
loyalty  and  patriotism.  Assaults  which  might,  under 
other  conditions,  be  directed  against  the  State  are 
merely  aimed  at  the  captain  and  the  crew. 

Obviously,  however,  a  good  deal  of  incidental  harm 
results  from  too  frequent  changes  of  the  captain  and 
the  crew,  even  though  such  facility  of  change  may  make 
it  sure  that  nobody  will  attempt  to  scuttle  the  ship. 
For  the  change  of  captain  means  often  the  shifting 
of  the  ship's  course,  and  the  abandonment  of  one  de- 
sired port  for  another.  These  inconveniences  are  par- 
ticularly to  be  noted  in  respect  of  the  country's  external 
relations.  They  have  made  it  comparatively  difficult 
for  the  Third  Republic  to  take  and  hold  its  place  in 
the  councils  of  Europe.  They  have  made  alliances 
more  difficult  to  arrange  and  maintain,  and  they  have 
caused  some  regrettable  mishaps  in  the  field  of  diplo- 
macy, while  also  rendering  colonial  expansion  more  preca- 
rious and  uncertain.  Thus  France  at  a  critical  moment 
sacrificed  her  equal  influence  in  Egypt ;  and  England, 
with  her  greater  stability  of  policy,  seized  the  advan- 
tage. Thus  again  Jules  Ferry  was  discredited  through 
a  misapprehension  of  the  value  to  France  of  his  great 
colonial  policy,  at  the  very  time  when  of  all  men  his 
retention  at  the  helm  was  most  important  for  the  fut- 
ure of  France.  In  the  further  evolution  of  the  French 
Republic,  therefore,  it  would  seem  likely  that  a  way 
will  be  found  to  give  firmer  tenure  and  better  opportu- 


INTBOBUCTION.  xix 

nity  to  the  administration  of  the  day.  It  would  seem 
likely  also  that  the  Third  Republic  will  continue  to  pur- 
sue the  policy  of  developing  provincial  and  local  life  in 
France  by  further  relaxing  the  bonds  of  centralization. 
The  absolute  denial  of  local  home-rule  under  the  First 
Empire  had  in  the  main  survived  until  the  establish- 
ment of  the  present  Republic.  Reforms  in  that  field 
can  be  safely  urged,  with  advantages  to  the  national  life 
that  will  grow  constantly  more  apparent. 

The  gradual  fading  out  of  the  monarchical  factions  in 
France  until  all  dynastic  pretensions  had  become  harm- 
less, is  well  shown  by  our  author  through  the  happy 
method  of  his  narrative.  His  treatment  of  the  Bou- 
langer  episode  is  rounded,  complete,  and  just ;  although 
it  would  seem  to  me  that  his  recital  at  this  point  falls  a 
little  short  of  its  accustomed  vividness.  He  does  not 
perhaps  quite  reveal  the  depth  of  the  momentary  dis- 
may and  apprehension  that  fell  upon  loyal  republican 
hearts  in  France  when  Boulanger  won  his  great  elec- 
toral victory  in  the  Department  of  the  Seine  and  stood 
at  the  summit  of  his  brief  popularity.  I  happened  to  be 
in  Paris  through  that  season,  with  opportunities  which 
brought  me  somewhat  behind  the  political  scenes ; 
and  I  shall  not  soon  forget  that  turbulent  night  at  the 
close  of  the  election,  when  tried  and  dignified  repub- 
lican leaders  gathered  their  families  about  them  in 
uncontrollable  tears,  and  when  such  cool-headed  and 
veteran  statesmen  as  the  late  Senators  de  Pressense 
and  Jules  Simon  admitted  to  me  that  they  expected 
to  be  banished  from  France  within  six  months.  But 
if  M.  de  Coubertin  has  not  made  the  climax,  or  the 
apogee,  as  he  calls  it,  quite  dramatic  enough,  he  has 
certainly  drawn  the  anticlimax  in  true  and  firm  lines. 
For  hp  shows  us  how  quickly,  under  the  strong  hand 


XX  INTRODUCTION. 

of  M.  Constans,  the  hollo wness,  vulgarity,  and  fraud  of 
the  Boulanger  plot  were  revealed  to  a  disillusioned  and 
disgusted  country.  Wholesomely,  at  that  moment,  the 
great  exposition  of  1889  served  to  give  public  opinion  a 
new  rallying-ground,  and  to  show  through  its  splendid 
object-lessons  how  much  France  had  to  be  thankful  and 
hopeful  about,  in  her  new  industrial,  social,  and  educa- 
tional life. 

Thus  the  Republic  had  faced  the  fascinations  of  a 
Man  on  Horseback,  and  rejected  them  with  due  con- 
tempt. It  is  not  likely  that  another  candidate  for 
power  will  soon  appear  in  that  pretentious  and  dis- 
credited r61e.  The  Panama  episode  is  nearer  to  us, 
and  it  does  not  belong  in  so  complete  a  sense  to  his- 
tory as  does  the  Boulanger  incident.  Our  author  has 
discussed  it  with  due  reserve  and  with  a  justifiable  dis- 
position to  defend  the  honor  of  the  Republic  against  the 
wholesale  aspersions  that  were  so  common  in  England 
and  Germany.  Certainly  the  Panama  affair  was  de- 
plorable ;  but  it  does  not  follow  that  it  revealed  uni- 
versal corruption  in  French  political  life,  or  that  many 
of  the  influential  and  eminent  men  of  France  were  im- 
plicated either  in  the  giving  or  the  taking  of  bribes. 
The  investigation  of  the  so-called  Wilson  scandal,  which 
exposed  the  practice  of  selling  such  coveted  prizes  as 
the  Cross  of  the  Legion  of  Honor,  and  the  subsequent 
inquiry  into  the  Panama  transactions,  have  been  whole- 
some in  their  results,  and  have  in  no  sense  left  the 
Republic  discredited.  They  have  shown,  on  the  con- 
trary, that  the  Republic  will  not  screen  or  countenance 
those  types  of  the  corrupt  adventurer  that  had  not 
found  the  atmosphere  of  the  Second  Empire  altogether 
forbidding.  The  standard  of  public  honor  is  higher 
to-day  than  ever  before  in  France,  and  the  admyiistra- 


INTRODUCTION.  xxi 

tive  organization  is  more  efficient  by  far  and  more 
worthy  of  respect  and  confidence  than  under  any  former 
regime. 

I  must  beg  to  commend  especially  M.  de  Coubertin's 
account  of  the  diplomacy  of  the  Third  Republic.  M. 
Waddington's  attitude  and  policy  at  the  Congress  of 
Berlin  in  1878  form  a  bit  of  history  that  our  author  evi- 
dently regards  with  particular  pleasure.  Waddington's 
open  and  honorable  methods  were  sharply  in  contrast 
with  those  of  certain  other  men  in  that  notable  council. 
The  review  of  French  experience  in  the  acquisition  of 
colonial  empire  forms  another  chapter  in  this  volume 
highly  worthy  of  note.  Our  author  does  not  believe 
that  it  is  necessarily  the  business  of  republics  to  play 
a  purely  humble  and  domestic  r81e  while  the  monarchi- 
cal governments  are  engaged  in  spirited  and  adventur- 
ous rivalry  with  one  another  for  the  honor  and  profit 
that  may  belong  to  the  control  and  development  of 
territories  lying  beyond  the  home  domain.  It  is  with 
more  zeal,  perhaps,  than  is  betrayed  in  any  other  part 
of  the  volume  that  M.  de  Coubertin  defends  the  policy 
of  Jules  Ferry  in  Indo- China,  lauds  the  steps  which 
resulted  in  the  Tunis  protectorate,  outlines  a  great 
possible  North  African  Empire  for  French  enterprise  to 
create  and  develop,  and  points  out  the  lessons  that 
ought  to  be  learned,  for  the  more  prudent  management 
of  the  Tonquin  and  adjoining  Asiatic  possessions,  from 
the  errors  of  the  past.  Of  the  more  recent  economic 
policies  of  his  country  our  author  gives  a  very  intelli- 
gent account,  with  a  cautious  but  confessed  support  of 
M^^I^line's  policy  of  protection. 

If  M.  de  Coubertin  has  shown  himself  easily  at  home 
in  his  discussion  of  political  and  diplomatic  affairs,  he 
is  pre*eminently  sure  of  his  ground  in  his  chapters  upon 


XXll  INTRODUCTION. 

the  progress  and  work  of  education  in  France,  and 
upon  the  position  and  influence  of  the  Church.  He 
shows  conclusively  in  both  these  spheres  the  steady 
adjustment  of  methods  to  the  needs  and  ideals  of  the 
Republic.  The  improvements  in  French  education  have 
been  most  noteworthy ;  while  in  its  turn  nothing  has 
been  more  remarkable  than  the  changed  attitude  of 
the  Roman  Catholic  Church,  at  the  direct  instance  of 
Pope  Leo  XIII.,  towards  democratic  institutions  as 
embodied  in  the  present  French  Republic.  In  the  chai> 
ters  on  the  army,  and  on  industrial  society  and  the 
workingmen,  one  finds  revealed  the  principles  which 
are  working  towards  social  and  economic  equality,  and 
are  unquestionably  giving  a  socialistic  trend  to  the 
operations  of  government.  In  his  chapter  upon  the 
ideas  and  habits  that  mark  the  French  race  at  the  pres- 
ent day,  he  answers  very  fairly  those  sweeping  foreign 
criticisms  which  conclude  that  the  French  position  is 
utterly  hopeless  because  the  stock  is  morally  and  physi- 
cally decadent. 

To  answer  these  grave  charges  involves  on  our 
author's  part  a  discussion  of  the  literary  tendencies  of 
France,  and  an  inquiry  into  the  facts  touching  domestic 
life  and  morals.  His  conclusions  are  thoroughly  hope- 
ful. He  believes  that  the  spirit  of  the  Republic  is 
making  for  a  new  era  of  wholesome  and  ennobling  liter- 
ary activity.  The  immorality  of  which  France  stands 
accused  is  not  an  inherent  and  general  condition ;  but 
on  the  contrary  the  general  tone  of  the  nation's  life  is 
sound  and  virile.  That  stationary  condition  of  popu- 
lation which  has  seemed  to  so  many  observers  to  mark 
at  least  a  relative  decline  of  the  French  among  the 
great  peoples  of  the  earth,  is  attributed  by  our  author 
for  the  most  part  to  purely  economic  conditions,  that  is 


IN  TR  OD  UCTION.  xxiii 

to  say,  to  the  laws  and  customs  regulating  the  trans- 
mission of  property  and  to  related  causes. 

The  argument  has  frequently  been  made  that  France 
cannot  possibly  succeed  as  a  colonizing  nation  because 
she  lacks  the  necessary  overflow  of  population.  Our 
author's  reply  would  be  that  "  external  France,"  under 
properly  inviting  conditions,  might  furnish  precisely 
the  opportunity  that  would  lead  to  a  change  in  existing 
habits  and  customs,  and  result  in  the  appearance  of  a 
surplus  population.  In  Canada,  with  room  for  expan- 
sion, the  French  stock  is  remarkably  prolific  and  vigor- 
ous, with  no  symptom  of  decline  when  compared  with 
the  English  stock.  Colonial  possessions  abroad,  under 
certain  conditions,  might  prove  inviting  to  French- 
men, whose  love  of  home  and  reluctance  to  migrate  are 
surely  no  reprehensible  traits,  and  it  is  conceivable  that 
the  growth  of  an  external  French  empire  might  result 
in  a  race  stimulus  that  would  affect  in  a  favorable  way 
the  future  growth  of  the  nation. 

Albert  Shaw. 
New  York,  May,  1897. 


TABLE    OF    CONTENTS. 


I.    THE  EARLY  YEARS  OF  THE  REPUBLIC    ....        1 
The  4th  of  September,  and  the  National  Defence.  —  The 
Assembly  of  Bordeaux.  —  The  Communist  Insurrection :  Paris 
recaptured  by  the  French.  —  First  Symptoms  of  Recupera- 
tion. —  Decentralization :  Party  Spirit. 

II.    THE  EARLY  YEARS  OF  THE  REPUBLIC  {Conclusion)     .      26 
M.  Thiers,  Head  of  the  State,  and  Prime  Minister. — The 
Message  of  November  12, 1872. — The  First  Presidential  Crisis. 

—  Fusion,  and  the  White  Flag.  — How  the  Monarchists  helped 
to  make  the  Republic.  — Violent  Debates.  —  The  Discipline  of 
the  Republicans,  and  the  Legislative  Elections. 

in.    THE  SIXTEENTH  OF  MAY 63 

The  Constitution  of  1875:  Unforeseen  Stability.  —  The 
Beginnings  of  the  Parliament.  —  Preludes  of  a  Coup  d'etat. 

—  Appeal  to  the  Country,  and  the  Electoral  Campaign.  —  A 
Futile  Attempt.  —  Return  to  Normal  Life.  —  The  Exposition 
of  1878. —The  Marshal  resigns. 

IV.  THE  ALARM  OP  1875,  AND  THE  CONGRESS  OF  BERLIN  79 
Composure  and  Abstention.  —  A  Triple  Alternative.  —  The 
Conference  of  London.  —  M.  de  Bismarck's  Ideas. — Inter- 
vention of  Europe.  —  At  the  Congress  of  Berlin:  the  First 
Partition  of  Turkey. — Disinterestedness  appreciated.  —  The 
Difficulties  of  Republican  Diplomacy.  —  Formation  of  the 
Triple  Alliance. 

V.    TUNIS  AND  EGYPT 107 

A  Forced  Conquest.  —  Measures  well  taken  and  badly  ap- 
preciated. —  The  Treaty  of  Bardo.  —  Lies  and  Calumnies.  — 
France  in  Egypt.  —  The  Condominium.  —  Arabi  and  the  Na- 
tionalists.—  Tergiversations  of  France:  the  English  bom- 
bard Alexandria  and  occupy  Cairo.  —  The  "  Great  Minister." 

XXV 


xxvi  CONTENTS. 


VI.    THE  JULES  FERRY  MINISTRY 135 

Grovernmental  Anarchy.  — The  "  Long  Ministry."  —Legis- 
lative Work  is  resumed.  —  Angry  Quarrels  between  the 
Extremist  Parties.  —  The  Revision  of  1884.  — Energy  of  Jules 
Ferry.  —  His  Asiatic  Policy.  —  March  30, 18«5. 

Vn.    COLONIAL  FRANCE 162 

Three   Colonial   Empires.  —  A   National  Tradition.  —  Ob- 
1/'    stacks  and  Labors.  —  France  beyond  the  Sea  in  1872,  and  in 
1894.  —  West  Africa.  —  Madagascar.  —  French  Asia.  —  Prob- 
lems of  Indo-China.  —  Administrative  Errors. — The   Slug- 
gishness of  French  Commerce.  —  The  Educational  Question. 

Vm.    THE  CRISIS  (1885-1889) 198 

The  Majority  melts  away.  —  The  Elections  of  1885 :  a  Reac- 
tionary Half-victory.  —  Mistakes  and  Blundering.  —  A  Brave 
List  of  Appropriations.  —  Minister  Rouvier.  —  General  Bou- 
langer's  First  Exploits.  —  Unexpected  Scandals.  —  Election 
of  M.  Carnot.  —  The  Committee  of  the  Rue  Seze.  —  Exposi- 
tion of  1889.  —  The  Supreme  Court.  —  The  Elections :  the  End 
of  Boulangism. 

IX.    THE  TRIUMPH  OF  THE  REPUBLIC 239 

The  Workingmen's  Congress  in  Berlin.  —  The  Empress 
Frederick  in  Paris.  —  Cronstadt.  —  A  "Novel  Situation."  — 
The  General  Tariff  of  the  Custom-houses.  —  The  Monarchists' 
•"Last  Card."  —  False  Calculation.  —  Financial  Ways. — 
The  Elections  of  1893.  —  Minister  Casimir-Perier.  —  The  Rus- 
sian Fleet  at  Toulon.  —  National  Mourning. 

X.  THE  REPUBLIC  AND  THE  CHURCH 272 

Church  and  State.  —  Religious  Policy.  —  The  Congress  of 
Mechlin,  and  the  Encyclical  Quanta  Cura.  —  The  Designs  of 
Leo  Xin.  —  The  Toast  of  Algiers.  — Constitution  of  the  Re- 
publican Right. —  Political  Evolution,  and  Social  Evolution. 
—  The  Encyclical  Rerum  Novarum.  —  Resistance:  Declara- 
tion of  the  Cardinals.  —  Immovability  of  the  Sovereign  Pon- 
tiff. —The  Results.  —  The  "  Great  Problem." 

XI.    EDUCATION 308 

Primary  Instruction.  —  The  Results  of  Secularization. — 
The  Teacher.  —  Insufficiency  of  Moral  Instruction.  —  Ger- 
manic Pedagogy.  —  Schools :  Primary,  High,  and  Profes- 
sional. —  Secondary  Instruction :  the  Imperial  and  the  Mouas- 


CONTENTS.  xxvii 


tic  Stamp.  —  Overdriving.  —  The  Edacation  of  Gliaracter. — 
Schools  for  Girls.  —  University  Revival.  —  Students  and  Pro- 
fessors. —  The  Rights  of  the  State. 

XII.    THE  NATION  ARMED 346 

A  New  Spectacle.  —  Patriotism  throughout  the  Ages.  —  Its 
Modern  Formula.  —  Contradictory  Problems. — A  Work  of 
Perseverance  and  of  Confidence. — The  Effect  on  the  Nation. 

—  Officers  and  Soldiers.  —  Diverging  Tendencies.  —  A  Social- 
istic Lesson  in  Things.  —  Ideal  and  Patriotism. 

Xin.    IDEAS  AND  HABITS 367 

The  Survival  of  Ideas.  —  Foreign  Judgments  on  France. — 
The  Worship  of  Form.  —  Unhealthy  Scientific  and  Literary 
Stagnation.  —  Influence  of  Democracy  on  Letters  and  Lan- 
guage.—  The  Awakening :  Taine  and  Renan.  —  Retaliation  on 
Immorality. — The  French  Family  and  the  French  Woman. 

—  Decrease  of  Population. — The  Law  of  Succession,  and 
Malthusianism. 

XIV.    THE  SOCLA.L  QUESTION 391 

Errors  of  Valuation.  —  An  Unprecedented  Experience. — 
Universal  and  Simultaneous  Progress.  —  Political  Action: 
Congress  and  Elections.  —  Strikes.  —  Anarchists.  —  Intellec- 
tual Mediums.  —  Obstacles:  Petty  Proprietorship.  —  Alle- 
manists,  Broussists,  Guesdists,  Blanquists.  —  Syndicates. — A 
Second  Night  of  August  4. 


PREFACE. 


Any  one  who  undertakes  to  analyze  contemporary 
history  runs  the  risk  of 'finding  that  the  title  of  Histo- 
rian is  deliberately  refused  to  him.  The  historian  must, 
above  all  things,  be  impartial.  Is  this  chief  quality 
which  public  opinion  demands  from  him  compatible  with 
the  narration  of  events  of  which  he  has  been  the  wit- 
ness, and  upon  which  there  has  not,  as  yet,  descended 
that  rational  calm  which  time  alone  brings  in  its  train  ? 
Does  not  man,  who  is  inclined  to  judge  according  to  his 
passions,  rather  than  according  to  justice,  of  that  which 
nearly  concerns  him,  require  the  distance  of  age  for  a 
proper  survey  of  facts  in  their  true  proportions  ?  And, 
in  conclusion,  are  not  the  elements  of  information  lack- 
ing? The  archives  fill  slowly;  they  deliver  up  their 
treasures  only  when  those  persons  who  have  been  play- 
ing the  leading  parts  upon  the  stage  have  finally  disap- 
peared from  it.  The  writer  who  is  so  audacious  as  to 
try  to  sum  up  the  play  as  soon  as  the  curtain  has  fallen 
upon  it  should  distrust  his  ability  to  collect  the  docu- 
ments which  would  permit  him  to  reconstitute  with 
exactitude  that  which  he  has  not  seen,  and  to  hold  in 
check  that  with  which  his  memory  furnishes  him ;  he 
must  look  for  controversies,  even  for  contradictions,  of 
which  the  effect  will  be  to  injure  his  work  by  still  fur- 


XXX  PREFACE 

ther  diminishing  the  confidence  which  it  may  inspire  in 
those  who  read  it. 

Such  objections  deserve  to  be  seriously  scrutinized. 
They  are  not  irrefragable,  however,  and  they  lose  much 
of  their  weight  if  one  pauses  to  consider  how  greatly 
the  study  of  contemporary  history  nowadays  differs 
from  what  it  was  possible  for  it  to  be  fifty  years  ago. 
The  annals  of  monarchy  were  full  of  the  unexpected ; 
the  events  therein  always  bore  the  stamp  of  the  sover- 
eign will:  either  that  of  the  monarch,  or  that  of  the 
ministers  to  whom  the  monarch  delegated  or  abandoned 
the  exercise  of  power.  Athwart  the  march  of  events 
the  human  soul  was  perceptible,  always  influenced  by 
surroundings  and  circumstances,  yet  acting  in  a  thor- 
oughly individual  manner.  Democratic  history,  on  the 
contrary,  is  full  of  logic  ;  it  is  made  by  peoples,  and  not 
by  men;  there  is  a  sort  of  fatality  and  mathematical 
rigidity  in  the  way  in  which  everything  is  linked 
together,  and  the  slow  forces,  the  irresistible  currents, 
which  characterize  it  have  deep  origins  and  remote 
results. 

To  what,  then,  is  the  part  of  the  historian  reduced? 
There  are  no  secrets  to  fathom,  no  dark  designs  to  disen- 
tangle ;  the  statesmen  whose  politics  he  studies  are  not 
obliged  to  surrender  to  him  the  details  of  their  private 
life;  he  sees  in  them  only  the  servants  of  the  democ- 
racy, summoned  to  execute  its  orders  far  more  than  to 
inspire  its  conduct.  Day  by  day  the  press  has  noted 
their  words  and  their  deeds ;  he  has  only  to  make  his 
choice  from  this  mass  of  thoroughly  illuminated  facts, 
to  separate  that  which  is  of  importance  from  that  which 
is  not;  to  estimate  the  greater  or  less  value  of  each 


PREFACE.  xxxi 

piece  of  information.  He  operates  like  the  chemist 
who  separates  substances  from  one  another ;  he  ana- 
lyzes the  combination,  and  has  nothing  to  say  as  to 
its  being  good  or  bad. 

If  he  have  but  held  himself  aloof  from  the  battles 
which  his  pen  is  about  to  describe,  his  quality  of 
spectator  is  of  service  to  him,  rather  than  a  disadvan- 
tage. It  procures  for  him  sources  of  information  and 
means  of  authoritative  criticism  which  his  successor 
will  not  possess.  History  must  be  studied  either  at 
very  short  range,  or  at  great  distance ;  the  inter- 
mediate period  is  less  favorable  for  sound  judgments ; 
it  often  happens  that  contemporaries  possess  a  per- 
spicacity which  astonishes  their  descendants ;  in  this 
century  Mirabeau  and  Alexis  de  Tocqueville  have 
given  striking  examples  of  this,  and  many  private 
documents  which  have  been  brought  to  light  by  the 
publishers  of  Memoirs  prove  that  the  generation  of 
1789  had  a  clearer  and  more  exact  conception  of  the 
Revolution,  of  its  consequences  and  its  action,  than 
that  which  immediately  followed  it. 

When  it  is  a  question  of  contemporary  history,  one 
must  confine  himself  to  the  changes  which  have  taken 
place  within  a  definite  period.  The  period  which  we 
are  about  to  study  has  been  particularly  fruitful  in 
changes.  The  Third  Republic  has  beheld  the  accom- 
plishment of  a  general  evolution  in  ideas,  habits, 
political  forms,  social  relations.  In  order  to  find  the 
origin  of  this  evolution,  we  must  go  back  to  the  gloomy 
days  of  1792,  when  popular  right  rose  up  and  faced 
monarchical  right.  The  latter  is  the  more  ancient  of 
the  two,  and  lies  at  the  base  of  all  power ;    but,  in  the 


XXXU  PREFACE. 

course  of  centuries,  it  has  undergone  numerous  eclipses, 
and  has  consented  to  numerous  abdications.  It  would 
be  vain  to  seek  in  the  terrible  and  majestic  events 
which  filled  the  end  of  the  eighteenth  century,  and  the 
opening  years  of  the  nineteenth,  in  France,  for  any 
appearance  of  logic ;  all  is  confused  and  troubled ; 
the  languor  of  the  nation,  the  exceptional  genius  of 
one  man  whom  circumstances  never  ceased  to  favor, 
the  intoxication  of  glory,  the  terror  of  anarchy,  —  all 
concur  to  make  this  epoch  a  masterpiece  of  history ; 
far  from  serving  as  a  bond  between  the  past  and  the 
future,  as  has  been  asserted,  it  had  no  connection  with 
either  the  one  or  the  other.  The  Empire  is  a  vast 
administration  which  solves  none  of  the  problems  that 
the  Revolution  had  propounded,  but  which  imprisons 
the  French  people  in  an  inextricable  network  of  arti- 
ficial combinations  and  principles  :  and  Napoleon  gone, 
the  fetters  remain. 

The  conflict  begins  with  the  Restoration.  Louis 
XVIII.  has  the  perception  of  liberal  needs ;  the  true 
representatives  of  the  nation,  the  liberals,  are  endowed 
with  the  perception  of  monarchical  authority ;  Gen- 
eral Foy^  and  his  friends  conceive,  in  a  very  precise 
manner,  the  formula  of  constitutional  royalty,  and  they 
put  it  in  practice  in  a  perfectly  loyal  way,  but  the 
political  self-exiles  and  the  reactionaries  interfere : 
they  will  not  hear  to  a  compact  between  monarchical 
right  and  popular  right ;  they  perceive  only  the  duel 
between  "legitimacy"  and  the  Revolution,  and  as 
Charles  X.  is  their  man,  the  conflict  becomes  acute ; 
the  revolution  of  1830  results.  Beginning  with  that 
1  See  the  Letters  of  General  Fov. 


PREFACE.  xxxiii 

day,  the  Republic  is  the  necessary  government  of 
France  because  it  is  the  most  perfect  representation 
of  popular  right,  and  because  monarchical  right  no 
longer  exists.  Louis  XVIII.,  who  was  its  incarnation, 
could  sign  a  compromise  with  the  people ;  Louis 
Philippe  cannot ;  he  is  nothing  more  than  a  crowned 
President  of  a  Republic ;  that  is  the  way  in  which  it 
is  understood  by  those  who  have  contributed  the  most 
to  his  accession.  During  his  whole  reign  Louis 
Philippe  toils  to  become  king ;  he  almost  succeeds, 
by  dint  of  his  wisdom  and  his  cleverness,  but  the 
origin  of  his  power  weighs  upon  him ;  his  dynasty 
does  not  take  root  in  the  national  soil.  The  throne 
of  July  is  at  the  mercy  of  the  slightest  storm,  one 
might  almost  say,  of  the  smallest  wave. 

In  those  days  the  forward  march  of  democracy  ap- 
peared clearly  to  certain  choice  spirits  as  a  providen- 
tial, universal,  durable  fact.  "  A  great  democratic  rev- 
olution is  taking  place  among  us,"  wrote  Alexis  de 
Tocqueville ;  ^  "  some  persons  look  upon  it  as  a  new 
thing,  and,  taking  it  for  an  accident,  they  still  hope 
that  they  may  be  able  to  put  a  stop  to  it,  while 
others  consider  it  as  irresistible,  because  it  seems  to 
them  the  most  uninterrupted,  the  most  ancient,  and 
the  most  permanent  fact  which  we  know  in  history." 

And,  in  another  place  :  ^  "  For  whom  should  this 
study  [on  American  democracy]  be  profitable  and  in- 
teresting if  not  for  us,  who  are  being  dragged  along 
day  by  day  by  an  irresistible  movement,  and  who  are 

1  "Democracy  in  America  "  (De  la  Ddmocratie  en  Am^rique).  Intro- 
duction. 

a  Ibid.,  Vol.  II. 


xxxiv  PREFACE. 

walking  blindly  on,  perhaps  towards  despotism,  per- 
haps towards  a  Republic,  but  certainly  towards  a  demo- 
cratic social  state  ?  " 

Public  opinion  suffered  this  hesitation  between  a 
Republic  and  despotism  ;  the  form  of  government 
which  was  about  to  be  imposed  upon  France,  and 
which  was  to  mark  the  last  halt  before  the  accom- 
plishment of  her  new  destiny,  is  again  anticipatively 
defined  by  De  Tocqueville  with  the  surety  of  pro- 
phetic vision ;  it  is  d  Napoleonic  idea  —  Jacobin,  radical, 
socialistic  to-day.  It  is  "an  immense  and  tutelary 
power  1  which  undertakes  of  its  sole  responsibility  to 
secure  the  enjoyment  of  the  citizens,  and  to  watch 
over  their  fate.  It  is  absolute,  detailed,  regular,  provi- 
dent, and  gentle.  It  would  resemble  paternal  power 
if,  like  the  latter,  it  had  as  its  object  the  preparation 
of  men  for  manhood ;  but,  on  the  contrary,  it  seeks 
only  to  keep  them  fast  held  in  childhood :  it  likes  to 
have  the  citizens  enjoy  themselves,  provided  they  think 
of  nothing  but  enjoyment.  It  gladly  labors  for  their 
happiness,  but  it  wishes  to  be  the  sole  agent  thereto, 
and  the  sole  arbiter  thereof ;  it  provides  for  their 
safety,  foresees  and  secures  their  needs,  facilitates  their 
pleasures,  conducts  their  principal  affairs,  directs  their 
industry,  regulates  their  manner  of  inheritance,  divides 
their  heritage  :  why  cannot  it  relieve  them  entirely  of 
the  trouble  of  thinking  and  the  torment  of  living?  — 
I  have  always  believed,"  adds  the  illustrious  writer, 
"  that  this  sort  of  regulated  servitude,  sweet  and  peace- 
able, might  be  combined,  better  than  people  imagine, 
with  some  of  the  external  forms  of  liberty,  and  that 

1  De  la  D^mocratie  en  Am^rique,  Vol.  III. 


PBEFACE.  XXXV 

it  would  not  find  it  impossible  to  establish  itself  under 
the  very  shadow  of  the  sovereignty  of  the  people." 

The  revolution  of  1830  was  waged  against  the  old 
order  of  things,  of  which  an  offensive  renewal,  more 
apparent  than  real,  alarmed  the  nation.  The  revolution 
of  1848  was  waged  against  the  middle  classes,  who  had 
taken  upon  themselves  the  part  of  vanguard  of  democ- 
racy, and  had  afterwards  misunderstood  it.^  But  the 
Republic  had  the  triple  misfortune  to  recall  bloody 
memories,  to  alarm  Europe,  and  to  be  surrounded  in  her 
cradle  by  the  most  generous,  and,  at  the  sdme  time,  the 
least  reassuring  of  Utopias.  In  vain  did  she  have  liberty- 
poles  blessed ;  people  did  justice  to  her  intentions,  but 
they  did  not  believe  in  her  future.  In  order  to  estab- 
lish herself  in  a  stable  manner,  it  was  necessary  to  free 
herself  "from  the  formidable  fellowship  of  the  Con- 
vention." ^  The  men  of  1848  could  not  do  it;  the 
country  people  and  the  petty  middle  classes  of  the 
towns  vaguely  felt  their  interests  menaced  in  their 
hands.  They  were  seized  with  fear  at  the  shadow  of 
the  first  barricade.  Louis  Napoleon  presented  himself 
as  the  defender  of  order ;  he  was  received  with  cheers. 

It  is  puerile  to  represent  the  Empire  as  having  been 
established  in  spite  of  the  country,  against  the  will  of 
the  citizens.  The  truth  is  that  the  coup  d'Stat,  the 
master-stroke  in  State  policy,  had  the  approbation  of 
the  majority,  and  that  the  exiles  which  accompanied  it 
appeared,  to  more  than  one  upright  mind  led  astray  by 
terror,  as  a  sad  necessity. ^     Time  was  needed,  before 

1  E.  de  Pressense,  Various  Morales  et  Politiques,  Paris,  1886. 

2  Ibid. 

8  Twenty-seven  thousand  seven  hnndred  and  sixty-four  citizens  passed 


xxxvi  PREFACE. 

it  was  possible  to  perceive  their  real  uselessness,  and 
before  the  assassinating  character  of  the  2d  of  Decem- 
ber manifested  itself  in  broad  daylight.  Fear  can 
found  nothing  solid  and  durable,  and  as,  after  all, 
Napoleon  III.  was  not  a  tyrant,  the  imperial  institutions 
were  speedily  shaken  by  liberal  infiltrations  ;  it  became 
necessary  to  cover  them  up  with  a  layer  of  parliamen- 
tarism, in  order  to  consolidate  them.  The  Emperor, 
deprived  of  unscrupulous  counsellors,  returned  of  his 
own  volition  to  the  suggestions  of  his  revolutionary 
past.  ^ 

The  Republic  once  more  appeared  as  the  fated  goal ;  ^ 
nevertheless,  no  one  could  foresee  that  the  throne  would 
crumble,  not  in  the  inoffensive  effervescence  of  a  popular 
revolt,  but  on  a  field  of  battle  where  France,  alone, 
without  resources,  would  find  herself  grappling  with  a 
redoubtable  and  resolute  enemy. 

The  history  of  the  Third  Republic  ought  to  be  pre- 
ceded by  a  study  upon  the  society  of  the  Second  Empire, 
upon  those  who  formed  the  "ruling  class"  from  1852 
to  1870 ;  the  contrast  between  that  society  and  the 
"new  strata"  which  followed  it  explains  the  consoli- 
dation of  the  Republic.  "The  society  man,  with  his 
frivolous  disdains,  almost  always  passes,  without  per- 
ceiving it,  close  to  the  man  who  is  on  the  high  road  to 


before  the  mixed  Commissions  after  the  2d  of  December,  247  passed 
through  the  council  of  war,  and  626  through  the  police  office ;  239  were 
transported  to  Cayenne,  9563  to  Algeria ;  959  were  expelled :  636  were 
"removed,"  and  2818  were  assigned  fixed  residences  in  the  country. 
(Statistics  published  on  the  occasion  of  the  vote  for  six  millions  for  life- 
pensions  to  the  victims  of  the  coup  d'etat,  March,  1881.) 

1  "  The  only  revolutions  which  succeed  are  those  which  are  made  in 
advance  in  hearts  and  minds,  and  are  ordered  by  the  logic  of  history." 
(E.  de  Pressense.) 


PREFACE.  XXX  vii 

create  the  future ;  they  do  not  even  belong  to  the  same 
set ;  now,  the  common  error  of  society  people  is  to 
believe  that  the  set  which  they  see  constitutes  the 
whole  world. "1  "The  ruling  class  of  the  Empire  was, 
pre-eminently,  a  syndicate  of  protection  guilty  of  much 
egotism,  and  with  a  taste  which  was  dangerous  to 
immobility  ;  it  could  be  said  of  each  one  of  the  syndicate 
members,  that,  isolated,  he  is  a  stranger  to  the  destiny  of 
all  the  others ;  his  children  and  his  special  friends  form 
for  him  the  whole  human  race ;  as  for  the  rest  of  his 
fellow-citizens,  he  is  close  beside  them,  but  he  does  not 
see  them  ;  he  touches  them,  but  he  does  not  feel  them."  ^ 
The  spirit  of  solidarity,  on  the  contrary,  closely 
united  all  those  who,  perceiving  that  a  new  era  was 
about  to  dawn,  feeling  that  the  country  was  on  the  point 
of  "  becoming  enamoured  of  checks  and  guarantees,"  * 
labored  to  render  themselves  worthy  to  govern  it, 
when  the  day  should  come.  The  latter  had  faith ;  they 
firmly  believed  that  "  free  institutions  are  the  only  ones 
which  can  be  sure  of  not  dying."*  They  were  moder- 
ate, and  did  not  admit,  so  far  as  the  Revolution  was 
concerned,  that  theory  of  the  "lump"  which  has  been 
impetuously  formulated  since.  They  repudiated  the 
"  Jacobin  religion,"  and  proclaimed  its  numerous  points 
of  contact  with  the  "  Bonapartist  religion."  Calling  to 
mind  that  "  the  Jacobins  were  the  best  prefects  of  the 
Empire,"  they  repulsed,  with  all  their  might,  "that 

1  E.  Renan,  Saint  Paul,  Ch.  VIII. 

2  Alexis  de  Tocqueville,  De  la  Dimocratie  en  Am^rique,  Vol.  III.  On 
the  excess  of  centralization  and  individualism,  see  M.  Laboulaye's  amus- 
ing satire,  Le  Prince  Caniche. 

8  Jules  Ferry,  Dixcours  et  Opinions,  Vol.  I. 
*  Ibid. 


XXX  VlU  PREFACE. 

narrow  and  unhealtliy  devotion  to  the  men  of  the 
Terror,"  ^  which  was  becoming  the  fashion  among  the 
advocates  of  authority. 

And  above  all  they  worked.  There  were  distin- 
guished minds  in  both  camps ;  in  one  only  was  work 
held  in  honor.  The  other  gave  itself  over  to  pleasure 
and  to  repose ;  there  no  one  sought  progress  except  in 
so  far  as  it  added  to  the  enjoyment  of  life. 

When  the  fatal  hour  for  the  imperial  form  of  govern- 
ment sounded,  the  Republic  had  its  staff  in  readiness ; 
the  nation  did  not  know  it ;  among  men  she  perceived, 
at  first,  only  radicals  and  demagogues ;  in  doctrines, 
she  noted  only  the  extreme,  the  most  violent ;  therefore, 
she  did  not,  at  once,  yield;  she  demanded  sacrifices  of 
ideas,  proofs  of  political  perception  ;  she  wished  to  have 
her  confidence  restored. 

No  other  party  had  prepared  itself  to  enter  upon  the 
inheritance.  In  default  of  attachment  to  the  imperial 
dynasty,  the  majority  of  the  royalists  had  a  taste  for  the 
things  of  the  Empire  ;  they  liked  its  manner  of  govern- 
ing, and  regretted,  with  all  their  hearts,  that  their 
Prince  had  not  understood  how  to  be  the  first  to  make 
use  of  it.  The  "  preservative  alliance "  which  was 
formed,  later  on,  between  the  partisans  of  the  divers 
monarchical  forms  of  government,  was  not  as  artificial 
as,  for  a  long  time,  it  was  believed  to  be.  The  pre- 
servers were  divided  in  name  far  more  than  by  the 
nature  of  their  solutions  of  the  problem ;  their  desires 
blended  on  the  majority  of  the  points. 

By  a  strange  irony  of  fate,  they  powerfully  aided 
in  the  strengthening  of  the  Republic,  by  forcing  the 

1  Jules  Ferry,  Discours  et  Opinions,  Vol.  I. 


PREFACE.  xxxix 

republicans  to  wisdom,  and  by  abandoning  to  them  the 
positions  only  little  by  little.  First  the  Chamber  of 
Deputies  escaped  from  their  grasp,  then  the  Presi- 
dency, then  the  Senate,  then  the  Departmental  and 
Communal  Assemblies.  The  Republic  absorbed  the 
marrow  of  their  doctrines ;  she  assimilated  that  which 
she  found  in  them  of  utility  to  herself,  and  thus  trans- 
formed the  preservers  into  rebels.  Her  strength  has 
lain,  in  great  part,  in  the  fact  that,  at  no  moment,  had 
she  great  confidence  in  herself.  Monarchies  always 
believe  that  they  are  deeply  anchored  in  the  affection 
of  the  people,  because  the  monarch  lives  isolated  from 
his  people  by  the  courtiers.  The  Republic,  on  the  con- 
trary, believed  herself  to  be  less  stable  than  she  really 
was.  She  knew  not  complete  security,  and  when  her 
successive  victories  had  discouraged  her  original  adver- 
saries, she  beheld  the  disturbing  elements  which  had 
just  been  reduced  to  silence  on  the  right  enter  again 
upon  the  scene  on  the  left.  At  the  same  time  that  the 
restoration  of  the  monarchical  state  of  things  daily 
appeared  more  improbable,  and  that  the  very  persons 
who  had  the  most  reasons  for  desiring  it  had  lost  con- 
fidence in  the  future,  the  Revolution,  with  its  absolute 
doctrines,  and  its  violent  methods  of  procedure,  once 
more  became  the  ideal  of  a  whole  party,  which  made  use 
of  its  name,  and  seemed  more  and  more  disposed  to  aban- 
don legal  ^ways  in  the  pursuit  of  its  claims.  That  is 
the  state  of  affairs  at  the  present  hour,  when  these 
lines  appear.  The  author  will  refrain  from  closing 
with  the  word  "progress."  That  is  too  definitive  a 
term,  and  one  which  the  experience  of  successive  gen- 
erations has  often  effaced  from  the  summit  of  monu- 


xl  PREFACE. 

ments  where  the  enthusiasm  of  contemporaries  had 
inscribed  it. 

Progress  is  relative ;  it  may  exist  between  one  his- 
torical period  and  another  period  without  the  public 
thing  coming  to  perfection,  —  between  one  nation  and 
another  without  the  world  being  improved.  The  for- 
ward march  of  humanity  is  so  slow,  so  impeded !  So 
many  mists  lead  it  astray  !  so  many  obstacles  retard  it ! 
so  many  evil  encounters  force  it  to  retrace  its  steps  ! 
In  general,  a  nation  is  progressing  if  the  germs  within 
it  continue  to  develop  freely  ;  if  the  institutions  which 
govern  it  are  suited  to  it,  if  they  favor  that  develop- 
ment ;  if  the  men  who  direct  it  are  equal  to  their  task, 
if  they  throw  the  future  wide  open  to  it  without  allow- 
ing it  to  lose  sight  of  its  past. 

This  harmony  between  yesterday  and  to-morrow, 
then,  is  the  criterion  of  progress.  Every  period  of  real 
national  progress  forms  a  sort  of  point  of  connection 
between  what  has  preceded  and  what  is  about  to  fol- 
low. Whatever  may  be  the  appearances  and  the  prob- 
abilities, it  would  be  foolhardy  to  say  that  the  present 
form  of  government  fulfils  these  conditions.  We  stand 
at  the  turn  of  a  century,  where  too  much  uncertainty 
weighs  upon  our  destinies  to  authorize  such  language  ; 
but  in  no  way,  except  by  putting  end  to  end  the  diverse 
facts  which  compose  her  history,  can  it  be  seen  that  the 
Third  Republic  has  regarded  herself  as  the  heir  of  all 
France ;  she  has  repudiated  none  of  the  national  tra- 
ditions ;  she  has  reversed  them,  in  more  than  one 
instance.  In  any  case,  she  has  furnished  a  new  proof 
of  the  justice  of  the  thought  which  our  old  poet  Ron- 
sard  so  prettily  expressed :  — 


PREFACE.  '  xK 

The  Frenchman  seems  a  verdant  willow ; 
The  more  he  is  cut,  the  more  he  sprouts. 
He  puts  forth  more  branches, 
He  acquires  vigor  through  his  own  injury.^ 

1  Le  Fran9ais  semble  un  saule  verdissant  ; 
Plus  on  le  coupe  et  plus  il  est  naissant. 
D  rejetonne  en  branches  davantage 
Et  prend  vigeur  dans  son  propre  dommage. 


LIST   OF  ILLUSTRATIONS. 


FiLix  FA.URS,  President  of  the  Republic     .        .       H-ontispiece 
JcLES  Fatke,  Member  of  the  Government  of  the  National 

Defence 12 

Marshal  MacMahon,  Due  de  Magenta,  and  Second  Presi- 
dent of  the  Republic 36  3  *f 

Jules  Grevt,  Third  President  of  the  Republic  .        .  60 

Ad.  Thiers,  First  President  of  the  Republic      .         .         .  84  S  "^^ 

Ch.  de  Fretcinet,  Minister  and  Senator      ....  125 
Jules    Simon,    Minister,    Senator,    and    Member    of    the 

French  Academy 151 

Cardinal    Latigerie,    Archbishop    of     Carthage    and    of 

Algiers 190 

General  Boulanger,  Minister  of  War  ....  214 

Jean  Casimir-Perier,  Fifth  President  of  the  Republic     .  234 

A.  RiBOT,  Deputy  and  Prime  Minister 260  Z  5o 

Jules  Ferry,  Deputy,  Prime  Minister,  and  President  or 

the  Senate 284 

litov  Gambetta,  Deputy  and  Minister,  and  President  of 

THE  Chamber  of  Deputies 309  i '  ^ 

M.  Sadi-Carnot,  Fourth  President  of  the  Republic  .  359 

Ernest  Renan,  of  the  French  Academy        ....  377 

H.  Taine,  of  the  French  Academy 390 


*^  at  tbb'^^ 
[UFI7BRSITr] 

%«^^ 

THE  EVOLUTION  OF  FRANCE  UNDER 
THE  THIRD  REPUBLIC. 

CHAPTER  I. 

THE  EARLY  YEARS  OF  THE  REPUBLIC. 

The  4th  of  September,  and  the  National  Defence.  —  The  Assembly  of 
Bordeaux.  —  The  Communist  Insurrection :  Paris  recaptured  by  the 
French.  —  First  Symptoms  of  Recuperation.  —  Decentralization :  Party 
Spirit. 

In  the  series  of  revolutionary  days  which  the  annals 
of  modern  France  contain,  the  4th  of  September, 
1870,  occupies  a  place  apart.  On  that  date,  the  Empire 
was  not  overthrown  ;  it  ceased.  The  attempt  has  often 
been  made,  in  the  interests  of  party  which  it  is  easy 
to  discern,  to  represent  the  4th  of  September  as  the 
deliberate  and  prearranged  enterprise  of  a  group  of 
factionists.  Such  an  enterprise  could  not  have  been 
prepared  in  secret,  or  accomplished  without  resistance; 
the  very  facility  with  which  the  change  of  government 
was  effected  indicates,  not  only  how  unstable  were  the 
imperial  institutions,  but  also  how  little  people  expected 
to  see  them  disappear  so  rapidly. 

The  legislative  body,  it  is  true,  contained  republicans 
who  had  never  concealed  their  opinions,  or  ceased  to 
struggle,  with  the  view  of  giving  to  the  future  a  direc- 


2  THE  EVOLUTION  OF  FRANCE. 

tion  conformable  to  their  desires.  But  patriotism  and 
interest  equally  counselled  them  not  to  hasten  a  catas- 
trophe which  was  destined  to  be  prejudicial  to  the  cause 
of  peace,  as  well  as  to  that  of  the  Republic.  "  We  did 
not  wish,"  one  of  them  has  said,  "  that  the  government, 
which  is  the  ideal  of  our  political  life,  should  be  inaugu- 
rated amid  fortuitous  circumstances."  Nevertheless,  in 
the  expectation  of  the  disaster,  which  all  sensible  men 
foresaw  from  that  time  on,  the  opportunity  for  a  sort 
of  "  Committee  of  National  Defence  "  was  faced  among 
the  deputies.  The  names  of  Mr.  Schneider,  President 
of  the  legislative  body,  of  General  Palikao,.  Minister 
of  War,i  and  of  General  Trochu,  Governor  of  Paris, 
seemed  to  unite  the  approbation  of  all.  It  was  under- 
stood that,  if  it  became  necessary  to  create  a  govern- 
ment, it  should  be  done  as  "  anonymously  "  as  possible, 
so  that  "  the  legal  order  might  be  continued,"  ^  without 
compromising  the  future,  or  openly  breaking  with  the 
past.  The  Empress'  regency  was  not  regarded  as  a 
serious  solution  of  the  difficulty,  and  the  agitation 
which  the  dynastic  interests  kept  up  around  the  throne 
seemed  to  have  no  echo  in  Parliament. 

The  disaster  came,  and  even  among  the  most  pessi- 
mistic no  one  had  foreseen  that  it  Avould  be  so  tragic 
and  so  complete.  When  the  news  of  the  capitulation 
of  Sedan  had  been  communicated  by  the  Empress  to 
the  Minister  of  War,  General  Palikao  imparted  it  to  the 
Chamber,  not  without  some  suppressions ;  there  was  a 

1  The  ministry  over  which  General  Palikao  presided  had  succeeded  to 
OUivier's  ministry  on  August  9.  It  comprised  MM.  Henri  Chevreau, 
Prince  de  la  Tour  d'Auvergne  (Foreign  Affairs),  Admiral  Rigault  de 
Genouilly,  Magne,  Grandperret,  Brame,  Cle'ment  Duvernois,  and  Je'rome 
David. 

3  Deposition  of  M.  Jules  Ferry,  before  the  Commission  of  Inquiry  on 
the  Procedures  of  the  Government  of  the  National  Defence,  instituted  in 
1872  by  the  National  Assembly. 


EABLT  TEARS  OF  THE  REPUBLIC.  3 

night  session,  in  the  course  of  which  Jules  Favre,  in 
the  midst  of  a  glacial  silence,  offered  a  proposition  of 
dethronement.  The  majority  of  that  Chamber  was 
devoted  to  the  Empire;  the  greater  part  of  the  depu- 
ties owed  to  it  their  warrants;  many  had  obtained  that 
warrant  with  the  aid  of  the  official  candidacy  which, 
for  a  long  time,  had  violated  the  results  of  universal 
suffrage.  Nevertheless,  not  a  voice  was  raised  within 
the  walls  of  Parliament  to  defend  the  dynasty  and  its 
chief.  Every  one  felt  that  they  were  doomed.  The 
fragility  of  the  bonds  which  united  France  to  the  Em- 
pire appeared  in  plain  colors  ;  they  were  no  longer  the 
bonds  of  centuries  which  had  united  it  to  royalty  ;  the 
Bourbons  were  dear  to  them,  after  a  fashion,  as  a 
married  pair  are  dear  to  each  other,  when  their  union 
has  been  blessed  by  the  civil  law  and  the  Church,  who 
behold  numerous  children  clustering  around  them,  and 
who  have  behind  them  the  memory  of  a  long  existence 
whose  joys  they  have  tasted,  and  whose  woes  they  have 
borne  together.  The  revolutionists  of  1830  and  of  1852 
did  not  understand  this,  and,  in  their  folly,  they  thought 
that  all  Orleans  and  Bonaparte  required  to  implant  them- 
selves in  the  destinies  of  the  country  was  legal  conse- 
cration, that  "  national  will "  of  which,  nevertheless,  the 
ballot  affords  only  an  imperfect  expression.  In  reality, 
simple  contracts  had  intervened  between  France  and 
the  Second  Empire  as  between  France  and  the  Monarchy 
of  July :  the  first  had  been  denounced  because  Louis 
Philippe  had  refused  to  sanction  a  reform  in  the  elec- 
toral law  ;  could  the  obligation  to  denounce  the  second 
be  avoided  on  the  morrow  of  Sedan  ? 

It  was  popular  indignation  which  proclaimed  the 
Republic.  A  considerable  throng,  whose  attitude  was 
at  once  calm  and  resolute,  invaded  the  legislative  body. 


4  THE  EVOLUTION  OF  FRANCE. 

there,  in  a  manner,  seized  upon  the  deputies  of  the 
opposition,  and  dragged  them  to  the  City  Hall,  with- 
out interrupting  traffic  in  Paris,  without  even  opposing 
the  departure  of  the  Empress,  who,  at  that  very  hour, 
was  leaving  the  Tuileries,  without  any  appearance 
whatever  of  resistance  on  the  part  of  the  functionaries 
and  the  soldiers.  It  is  reported  that  the  Prefect  of  the 
Seine,  M.  Alfred  Blanche,  when  he  saw  M.  Gambetta 
appear  in  his  office,  said  to  him:  "I  was  expecting 
you,"  and  withdrew.  The  whole  of  the  4th  of  Sep- 
tember is  summed  up  in  this  remark.  Since  morning 
the  Republic,  represented  by  these  citizens  who  made 
their  way  peaceably  along  the  quays  to  the  Municipal 
Building,  had  been  "expected." 

The  embarrassment  of  those  whom  circumstances 
in  this  fashion  thrust  into  power  was  great.  They 
were  conscious  of  their  terrible  responsibility,  and  ac- 
cepted it  in  no  spirit  of  levity.  Moreover,  they  were 
compelled  to  offer  energetic  resistance  to  the  "impa- 
tient," as  they  called,  by  euphemism,  those  men  of 
disorder  whose  votes  they  had  obtained,  but  whose 
violent  passions  they  did  not  share.  Milliere  and  Deles- 
cluze  were  already  at  the  City  Hall,  eager  to  undertake 
a  revolutionary  crusade.  The  germ  of  the  Commune 
already  existed  in  certain  quarters  of  Paris;  the  18th 
of  March  might  have  served  as  the  morrow  of  the 
4th  of  September;  there  was  no  room  for  evasion. 
The  deputation  of  Paris  constituted  itself  a  "  Govern- 
ment of  National  Defence."^  It  was  composed  of 
MM.  Emmanuel  Arago,  Cremieux,  Jules  Fa\T:e,  Jules 
Ferry,  Gambetta,  Garnier-Pages,  Glais-Bizoin,  Pelle- 
tan,  Ernest  Picard,  Jules  Simon,  and  Henri  Roche- 
fort.     General  Trochu  was  called  to  preside  over  the 

1  Journal  Officiel  de  la  R^publique  Franqaise,  du  5  Septembre,  1870. 


EARLY  TEARS   OF  THE   REPUBLIC.  5 

government,  M.  Etienne  Arago  was  appointed  Mayor  of 
Paris.  ^ 

A  double  task  was  imposed  upon  the  new  rulers :  that 
of  organizing  the  internal  defence  by  appealing  to  all 
willing  men;  that  of  soliciting  abroad  the  intervention 
of  the  European  powers.  "  Surround  yourselves," 
wrote  Gambetta  to  the  prefects  on  September  5,  "  with 
citizens  animated,  like  yourselves,  with  the  immense 
desire  to  save  the  country.  Strive,  above  all,  to  win  the 
aid  of  all  wills,  in  order  that,  in  one  unanimous  effort, 
France  may  owe  her  salvation  to  the  patriotism  of  her 
children."  And,  a  few  days  later,  Jules  Favre,  ad- 
dressing a  circular  to  our  representatives  abroad,  urged 
them  to  redeem  the  responsibility  of  France  in  the  eyes 
of  the  sovereigns  to  whom  they  were  accredited. 
"There  is  not  a  sincere  man  in  Europe,"  he  said,^ 
"  who  can  affirm  that,  had  she  been  freely  consulted,  I 
France  would  have  made  war  on  Prussia." 

The  proclamation  of  the  Republic  had  excited,  in  the 
country  districts,  a  lively  enthusiasm ;  a  great  many 
Frenchmen,  moved  by  the  memories  of  1792,  and  inca- 
pable, at  that  tragic  moment,  of  measuring  the  differ- 
ence between  the  two  epochs,  expected  from  it  a  sort 
of  miraculous  awakening,  and  imagined  that  unforeseen 
forces  were  about  to  spring  from  the  earth  to  repulse 
the  enemy.  They  felt  the  soul  of  the  nation  emerging 
from  its  lethargy,  and  repeated  with  the  Strozzi  of 
Lorenzacchio :    "  If  the   Republic   were   nothing  more 

1  The  presence  of  Rochefort,  whom  they  had  gone  to  seek  in  his  prison, 
did  not  imply  radical  tendencies  on  the  part  of  his  colleagues.  Rochefort 
was  the  deputy  from  Paris,  and  this  title  gave  an  aspect  of  legality  to  the 
government  formed  by  the  union  of  those  who  upheld  him.  Many  of  the 
moderate,  however,  who  feared  the  talent  and  the  influence  of  Rochefort, 
considered  it  preferable  to  have  him  "  inside  rather  than  outside." 

2  Circular  of  September  17,  1870. 


6  THE  EVOLUTION  OF  FRANCE. 

than  a  word,  that  word  is  something,  since  nations 
rise  up  as  it  passes  through  the  air." 

For  a  moment,  events  seemed  to  justify  the  wild 
hope.  Gambetta  announced  himself  as  the  second 
organizer  of  victory  ;  at  the  summons  of  his  voice, 
which  rarely,  later  on,  found  noble  accents,  confidence 
rose  again  in  souls,  and  hatred  against  the  invader 
drew  all  hearts  together.  "Not  an  inch  of  our  terri- 
tory !  Not  a  stone  of  our  fortresses  ! "  Jules  Favre  had 
said,  and  that  haughty  reply  was  repeated  by  each  man 
in  the  depths  of  his  own  being.  A  great  wave  of 
patriotism  had  swept  over  France,  solidifying  it,  as  in 
northern  regions,  those  vast  stretches  maintained  by 
their  immobility  in  a  state  of  liquidity,  and  which  a 
cold  breath  congeals  in  an  instant.  It  was  a  heroic 
struggle.  All  the  generous  and  noble  ardor  of  the 
Gallic  blood  awoke  :  there  was  but  one  flag  now  ;  after 
the  young  men,  the  elderly  men  enlisted,  with  joy  in 
their  eyes,  happy  to  fight  for  a  cause  so  just  and  so 
holy;  and  when,  at  last,  the  ruin  was  complete,  when 
Paris  besieged  was  on  the  point  of  perishing  with 
hunger,  when  they  were  compelled  to  lay  down  their 
arms  and  confess  defeat,  France  had  the  consolation  of 
being  able  to  assert,  as  in  the  time  of  Francis  I.,  that 
all  was  lost,  "save  honor." 

People  had  cherished  no  fewer  illusions  concerning 
the  attitude  of  foreign  powers  than  they  had  with 
regard  to  the  strength  of  our  improvised  battalions. 
Europe  heard  with  satisfaction  of  the  first  Prussian 
victories  ;  our  wild  and  exuberant  conduct  had  dis- 
pleased all  governments  ;  ^    the  war  of  Italy  even  had 

1  The  anti-French  manifestations  were  tolerably  numerous.  In  the 
course  of  the  war  there  were  defections  which  echoed  sadly  through  the 
heart  of  the  nation;  among  others,  the  visit  to  Versailles  of  Cardinal 


EARLY  TEARS  OF  THE  REPUBLIC.  7 

left  rancor  in  the  hearts  of  the  Italians,  and,  at  the 
first  moment,  not  a  single  person  could  be  found  to 
deplore  our  fate.  Later  on,  the  efforts  of  the  French, 
their  unconquerable  faith,  commanded  esteem  and  ad- 
miration ;  none  the  less  clearly  did  Europe  show  her 
intention  to  abstain  from  intervention.  The  capitula- 
tion of  Sedan,  nevertheless,  had  not  failed  to  cause  un- 
easiness in  certain  of  the  neutral  powers ;  they  feared 
lest  the  equilibrium,  re-established  for  a  moment,  should 
be  again  destroyed  by  too  complete  a  victory  on  the 
part  of  Germany.  But  these  powers  did  not  wish  to 
intervene  in  favor  of  a  government  which,  as  yet, 
inspired  them  with  no  confidence.  Such  was  the  im- 
pression which  M.  Thiers  brought  back  from  his  sad 
pilgrimage  over  Europe,  —  a  pilgrimage  undertaken  on 
the  morrow  of  the  4th  of  September,  and  in  the  course 
of  which  he  gathered  from  the  sovereigns  and  their 
ministers  only  vague  condolences  and  promises  with- 
out import.  Italy,  moreover,  had  taken  advantage 
of  our. embarrassment  to  mak^lome  its  centre  and  the 
coronation  of  its  unity,  and  rrince  Gortchakoff  had 
profited  by  it  to  announce  the  abrogation  of  the  treaty 
of  1856,  the  result  of  the  unlucky  Crimean  War. 

The  prolongation  of  the  struggle,  which  won  for  us 
only  private  sympathies,  —  help  for  our  wounded,  and 
gifts  of  money  sent  from  abroad  by  charitable  associa- 
tions, —  had  as  a  consequence  the  exasperation  of  the 
victor.  Prince  Bismarck  has  long  been  represented  as 
having  been  forced  into  war  by  the  Prussian  military 
party.     He  himself  has   given  people   to  understand 

Ledochowski,  and  the  incongruous  message  of  General  Grant,  President 
of  the  United  States,  addressed  to  the  Federal  Senate,  and  in  which  he 
exalted  the  German  Empire.  The  President  so  far  forgot  himself  as  to 
send  to  Versailles,  on  the  day  following  the  proclamation  of  the  Empire, 
a  telegram  of  congratulation  to  Emperor  William. 


8  THE  EVOLUTION  OF  FRANCE. 

that  he  had  been  forced  to  seem  exacting.  The  ex- 
traordinary destiny  of  the  Iron  Chancellor  reserved  for 
his  old  age  the  bitterness  of  the  vanquished,  and  in  this 
way  the  world  has  learned,  by  a  confession  from  his 
own  mouth,  that  in  order  to  render  inevitable  a  con- 
flict which  he  deemed  necessary  for  the  realization  of 
his  plans,  Prince  Bismarck  had  not  hesitated  to  forge 
a  telegram.^ 

Blinded  by  the  sense  of  his  own  merit,  the  Chancel- 
lor was  not  able,  in  this  case,  to  rise  above  his  passions. 
Nevertheless,  it  was  not  impossible  to  perceive  the  in- 
stability of  the  situation  which  must  result  from  a  war 
imprudently  prolonged.  "When  the  material  war 
shall  have  ceased,"  wrote  M.  de  Mazade,^  pronouncing 
judgment  on  the  future,  "the  moral  war  will  begin, 
never  more  to  end.  There  will  be  no  peace  between 
France  and  Germany  ;  it  will  be,  at  the  most,  an  agi- 
tated truce,  full  of  hostility  and  resentment,  in  the 
bosom  of  which  the  interests  and  the  relations  of  the 
two  countries  will  be  pemetually  in  peril  ...  a  barrier 
will  have  been  built ;  commerce,  industry,  intellectual 
communications  will  suffer  from  it ;  all  Europe  will  feel 
the  results  of  this  great  trouble  cast  into  the  centre  of 
the  continent ;  even  after  the  dismemberment  with 
which  we  are  threatened,  France  will  never  be  so 
greatly  mutilated  as  not  to  remain  a  great  nation  :  she 
will  collect  herself,  she  will  become  enlightened  by  her 
misfortunes,  she  will  recover  her  strength  and  her 
genius.  .  .  .  Who  shall  say  that  Germany  will  not  be 
forced,  one  of  these  days,  to  render  an  account  of  an 
abuse  of  the  victory,  of  which  she  will  experience  the 

1  This  tardy,  almost  posthumovis  revelation,  has  caused- less  emotion  in 
France  than  in  other  countries;  the  English  press,  in  particular,  has  been 
very  severe  in  its  criticism  of  an  act  vehich  nothing  can  render  legitimate. 

2  Revue  des  Deux  Mondes.    Chrouique,  Fevrier,  1871. 


EABLY  TEARS   OF  THE  REPUBLIC.  9 

fatal  results  in  future  crises,  that  in  any  case  may  drag 
her  politics  into  all  the  affairs  of  the  world  ?  "  M.  de 
Bismarck  did  not  perceive  this  ;  on  the  other  hand, 
this  attitude  on  the  part  of  Germany  has  had  some 
beneficial  consequences  for  us.  The  state  of  armed 
peace  may  have  weighed  heavily  upon  our  finances, 
and  may  even  have  paralyzed,  at  different  times,  our 
national  life.  Who  will  dare  maintain  that  it  has  not 
aided  in  the  work  of  reconstruction,  by  preserving  all 
wills  in  unity,  by  commanding  the  representatives  of 
the  people  to  wisdom  and  prudence,  by  warding  off  the 
dangers  of  too  complete  confidence  and  security  ?  Ger- 
many certainly  has  kept  up  among  us  a  fruitful  emula- 
tion, and  has  prevented  the  ardor  of  our  early  days 
becoming  extinguished. 

The  members  of  *the  government  of  the  National 
Defence  made  haste  to  appeal  to  universal  suffrage, 
and  to  make  it  approve  of  the  acts  which  concern  for 
public  safety  had  caused  them  to  perform.  But  fate 
decreed  that  they  should  be  forced  to  sacrifice  to  cir- 
cumstances the  doctrines  which  they  had  always  pro- 
fessed ;  they  found  themselves  compelled  to  govern 
without  control,  to  maintain  military  discipline  in  all 
its  rigor,  and  even  to  make  use  of  that  submission  of 
an  act  to  the  people  (plebiscite),  which  they  had  so 
energetically  condemned  under  the  preceding  govern- 
ment. ^  As  early  as  September  8,  the  electors  had  been 
convoked  for  the  16tli  of  the  following  October,  for 

1  As  soon  as  the  surrender  of  Metz  was  known,  a  revolt  broke  out  in 
Paris ;  this  was  during  the  day  of  October  31.  The  government  triumphed 
over  it;  but,  as  it  felt  that  it  had  suffered  a  shock,  and  as  it  did  not  wish 
to  summon  a  municipal  council,  which  would  have  led  to  the  establish- 
ment of  the  Commune,  it  had  recourse  to  the  plebiscite ;  550,000  favorable 
votes  against  60,000  rendered  its  position  solid,  and  helped  it  to  enforce 
obedience. 


10  THE  EVOLUTION   OF  FRANCE. 

the  purpose  of  electing  a  Constituent  Assembly ;  a  few 
days  later,  the  summons  was  advanced  to  the  2d  of 
October.  1  But  M.  de  Bismarck  had  too  much  interest 
in  preventing  the  gathering  of  an  Assembly  which 
would  have  legalized  the  internal  situation  of  France, 
and  by  that  very  means  have  facilitated  her  relations 
with  other  nations,  to  lend  himself  to  a  truce  of  arms. 
As  early  as  September  10,  M.  Jules  Favre  had  written 
to  him,  requesting  an  interview. ^  It  took  place  on 
September  19,  and  was  renewed  on  the  following  day. 
The  Chancellor  had  taken  pains  to  confirm  ^  the  exact- 
ness of  the  impressions  which  the  representative  of 
France  carried  away  from  Ferrieres ;  the  conditions 
upon  which  he  consented  to  an  armistice  were  such 
as  precluded  even  discussion.  Supported  by  the  popu- 
lation of  Paris,  the  government  opposed  a  plea  in  bar, 
and  adjourned  the  elections. 

Paris  was  invested,  and  a  delegation  composed  of 
MM.  Cremieux,  Glais-Bizoin,  and  Admiral  Fourichon 
held  session  at  Tours.  On  October  7,  Gambetta  set 
out  from  Paris  by  balloon,  crossed  the  Prussian  lines, 
and  joined  the  delegation.  He  had  the  warrant  to 
organize  the  defence,  and  not  to  hold  the  elections.* 
Now  the  state  of  men's  minds  was  not  the  same  in  the 
country  districts  that  it  was  in  Paris,  where  everything 
was  summed  up  in  this:  to  hold  their  own  until  the 
country  districts  could  raise  the  siege  of  the  capital, 

1  Decree  of  September  16,  1870. 

2  Report  of  M.  Jules  Fa^Te  upon  the  interviews  of  Haute-Maison,  and 
Ferrieres,  in  the  Officiel,  September  23,  1870. 

3  In  a  reply  to  the  Report  of  M.  Jules  Favre,  which  he  wrote  on  Sep- 
tember 27,  aud  had  inserted  in  a  German  newspaper.  It  was  copied  in  the 
Officiel,  on  October  18. 

*  At  Tours  they  had  waited  for  Gambetta's  arrival  before  coming  to  a 
similar  decision.  On  the  receipt  of  the  news  as  to  the  conditions  exacted 
by  M.  de  Bismarck,  M.  Cre'mieux  had  postponed  the  elections. 


EARLY   YEARS   OF  THE  REPUBLIC.  11 

or  until  foreign  intervention  should  impose  an  armistice 
upon  the  Germans.  In  the  country,  the  absence  of  a 
legal  government  was  more  keenly  felt.  The  adjourn- 
ment of  the  elections  was  there  looked  upon  as  a  grave 
mistake.  It  was  so,  in  fact ;  it  gave  M.  de  Bismarck 
the  chance,  in  the  presence  of  the  provisional  character 
of  the  institutions,  to  affect  an  ironical  indifference 
between  the  Republic  and  the  Empire,  and  to  declare 
that  he  was  ready  to  sign  a  treaty  of  peace  with  which- 
ever should  make  the  best  offer. 

It  does  not  come  within  the  scope  of  this  study  to 
reconstruct,  even  as  a  summary,  the  history  of  the 
gloomy  days  during  which  France  contended,  with  the 
German  armies,  foot  by  foot,  for  her  territory.  Others 
have  written  it  in  detail,  and  with  talent.  ^  The  gov- 
ernment of  the  National  Defence  was,  after  all,  only 
the  introduction  to  the  Republic,  —  an  introduction 
written  with  blood,  in  the  shadows.  The  men  who 
had  the  burdensome  honor  of  forming  a  part  of  it 
beheld,  as  they  should  have  expected,  their  acts  and 
their  intentions  calumniated ;  it  is  difficult  to  pretend 
that  they  did  not,  in  great  part,  justify  their  conduct 
in  their  testimony  before  the  Committee  of  Inquiry 
instituted  by  the  National  Assembly.  In  any  case,  it 
should  be  recognized  as  a  fact  that  they  saved  the  honor 
of  France  by  organizing  resistance  to  the  death,  that  they 
flinched  before  none  of  the  responsibilities  which  their 
introductory  step  had  caused  them  to  incur,  and  that  they 
sincerely  endeavored  not  to  be  a  partisan  government. 

They  became  so,  in  spite  of  themselves.  In  the  long 
run,  political  questions  regained  the  upper  hand;  the 
solidarity  which,  during  the  struggle  against  the  Em- 

1  See,  especially,  M.  Albert  Sorel's  remarkable  work  on  L'Histoire  Diplo- 
matique de  la  Guerre  Franco-Allemande. 


12  TEE  EVOLUTION  OF  FRANCE. 

pire,  had  united  them  to  the  radicals,  the  chimerical 
schemes  which  they  had,  at  times,  admitted  into  their 
programmes,  their  whole  fighting  past,  fettered  their 
movements,  and  when  the  communistic  insurrection 
broke  out,  which  added  to  the  horrors  of  a  foreign  war 
those  of  civil  war,  an  attempt  was  made  to  hold  them 
responsible  ;  people  forgot  that  during  six  months  they 
had  held  the  elements  of  disorder  in  an  attitude  of  re- 
spect ;  they  were  reproached  with  not  having  managed 
to  annihilate  them.  An  unjust  movement  of  reaction 
arose  against  them,  which  swept  them  from  power ; 
some,  like  Gambetta,  Jules  Ferry,  Jules  Simon,  were 
destined  to  regain  it,  and  to  give  proof  therein  of  the 
most  lofty  political  qualities;  others,  like  I\IM.  Cre- 
mieux,  Gamier-Pages,  Glais-Bizoin,  did  not  reappear 
in  the  front  rank.^ 

One  of  the  most  worthy,  Jules  Favre,  was  also  one 
of  the  most  culumniated.  His  popularity  was  great 
on  the  4th  of  September ;  he  paid  very  dearly  for  it. 
Destiny  condemned  him  to  set  his  name  at  the  bottom 
of  the  fatal  treaty  of  peace  which  dismembered  his 
country,  and  his  country  was  the  thing  which  he  loved 
best  in  the  world.  His  enemies  discovered  in  his 
private  life  a  sore  spot  not  thoroughly  healed,  reopened 
it,  and  pried  into  it  with  barbarous  cruelty.  They 
turned  into  ridicule  his  outbursts  of  feeling  in  the 
presence  of  the  conqueror,  and  the  delicacy  of  his 
modesty   remained    unappreciated. ^     The   end   of   his 

1  M.  Jules  Ferry,  appointed  Prefect  of  the  Seine  by  M.  Thiers,  on  May 
26,  1871,  was  replaced,  on  June  5,  1871,  by  M.  Leon  Say,  and  appointed,  in 
the  following  year,  Minister  of  France  at  Athens,  whence  he  returned  to 
fill  his  post  of  deputy  on  the  fall  of  M.  Thiers.  M.  Ernest  Picard  was 
Minister  at  Brussels.  M.  Emmanuel  Arago  occupied,  for  years,  the  post 
of  Ambassador  at  Berne.  Greneral  Trochu  retired,  and  from  that  time  on 
lived  in  privacy. 

2  Jules  Favre,  by  E.  de  Pressense.    Journal  cles  D^bats,  August,  1880. 


JULES    FAVRE,    MEMBER    OF    THE    GOVERNMENT    OF    THE 
NATIONAL    DEFENCE. 


[uiri7aRsiT7 


EARLY   YEARS   OF  THE  REPUBLIC.  13 

career  was  a  way  of  Calvary,  and  yet  in  his  corre- 
spondence only  one  protest  —  a  very  mild  one  —  is  to 
be  found,  wrung  from  his  courage  by  his  sufferings.  ^ 

He  was,  in  short,  the  first  victim  of  those  currents 
of  popular  calumny  which,  cleverly  worked  by  influ- 
ential and  malevolent  men,  struck  to  the  ground  more 
than  one  good  servant  of  France  under  the  Third  Re- 
public. More  than  one  of  these,  also,  has  already  found, 
through  a  revolution  of  public  opinion,  the  rehabilita- 
tion which  his  memory  merited. 

Gambetta,  whom  France  had  hailed  with  acclama- 
tion, was  not,  as  yet,  the  prudent,  wise,  and  thoughtful 
man  who  presided  over  the  Chamber  of  Deputies  later 
on.  The  great  ideas  which  haunted  his  brain  could 
not  take  the  place  of  that  experience,  that  "  knowledge 
of  difficulties  "  which  men  acquire  more  or  less  rapidly, 
according  to  their  degree  of  intelligence  and  tact,  but 
which  are  never  innate  in  them.  Six  months  of  a  dicta- 
tor's power  had  intoxicated  him  :  when  the  elections 
came,  he  wished  to  render  ineligible  all  those  who  had 
served  the  Empire  ;  the  resistance  of  his  colleagues  was 
required  to  prevent  his  entering  upon  that  path ;  he 
retired,  out  of  spite. 

His  hour  was  not  come.  The  man  upon  whom  all 
eyes  were  now  centred  possessed  the  double  advantage 
of  having  a  political  past,  and  yet  of  being  in  nowise 
compromised  by  the  fallen  government.  He  had  been 
a  great  minister,  or,  at  least,  many  persons  regarded 
him  as  such ;  he  had  become  a  great  writer ;  his  atti- 
tude on  the  eve  of  the  declaration  of  war  and  his  jour- 

1  "  It  is  a  real  advantage  to  abate  somewhat  the  good  opinion  which  one 
is  tempted  to  entertain  of  oneself.  I  enjoy  this,  and  I  did  not  wait  for  the 
defeat  to  do  it.  I  should  desire  nothing,  did  I  not,  occasionally,  fall  to 
thinking  that  the  unrelenting  animosity  which  does  me  honor  deprives  me 
of  the  power  to  be  useful."     (Jules  Favre,  Conferences  et  Mdanges.) 


14  THE  EVOLUTION  OF  FRANCE. 

ney  through  Europe,  in  search  of  foreign  sympathy, 
made  of  him  a  great  citizen.  He  wore  on  his  brow 
the  halo  of  wisdom,  and  France  felt  that  she  had  in 
him  a  moral  authority  which  would  compel  respect, 
M.  Thiers  was  elected  twenty-eight  times,  and  the  echo 
of  this  popular  vote  beyond  our  frontiers  was  all  the 
greater  because  it  was  impossible  to  misconstrue  the 
spontaneity  of  it.^ 

The  elections  took  place,  in  fact,  in  a  sort  of  twilight. 
Parties  had  not  had  time  to  reconstitute  themselves ; 
no  understanding  between  the  citizens  had  been  pos- 
sible ;  how  could  they  agree  upon  the  names  of  candi- 
dates, and  concoct  precise  programmes?  Each  man, 
as  he  canvassed  for  votes,  could  merely  give  his  own 
opinion,  and  promise  his  good-will.  Means  of  com- 
munication, which  had  been  imperfectly  re-established, 
and  the  presence  of  the  enemy,  tended,  necessarily,  to 
keep  politics  apart  from  this  great  electoral  consulta- 
tion, and  one  might  have  thought,  at  first,  that  this 
would  prove  of  benefit  to  the  country.  A  happy  elec- 
ticism  was,  in  fact,  the  dominating  note  of  the  elections. 
Lyons  sent,  at  the  same  time,  Jules  Favre,  General 
Trochu,  MM.  Mortemart  and  de  Laprade ;  Bordeaux 
sent  M.  Thiers,  the  Due  Decazes,  Generals  Changarnier 
and  d'Aurelle  de  Paladines.  These  men  had  in  view 
nothing  but  to  settle  in  the  best  possible  manner  a  dis- 
astrous situation,  and  then  to  take  the  greatest  care  of 
their  country  during  her  convalescence.  Peace  once 
signed,  and  the  first  financial  difficulties  which  would 
result  therefrom  overcome,  was  not  the  programme 
which   presented    itself    to   well-intentioned   men   ex- 

1  In  1830,  M.  Royer-Collard  had  been  elected  seven  times,  and  M.  de 
Lamartine,  in  1848,  nine  times.  The  electors  of  1795  had  given  to  M.  Pelet 
de  la  Lozere  the  election  in  thirty-seven  colleges,  and  to  M.  Thibaudeau 
in  thirty-two- 


EARLY   YEARS  OF  THE   REPUBLIC.  15 

tremely  simple  ?  Would  it  not  be  the  duty  of  all,  set- 
ting aside  their  own  preferences,  to  "put  their  hand 
to  this  common  task  which  was  to  embrace  our  military 
reconstitution,  our  internal  reorganization,  and  the  en- 
ergetic reform  of  public  education? "^  Was  it  not 
necessary  "  to  accustom  oneself  to  doing  useful  things 
modestly,  simply  in  order  that  one  might  learn  to  do 
manfully  great  things  when  the  hour  should  come?"^ 

Nevertheless,  simple  as  was  the  programme,  the  As- 
sembly of  Bordeaux  did  not  adopt  it  unanimously. 
Rather  was  it  perceptible  that  it  contained  uneasy  and 
turbulent  minorities  who  sowed  "  stormy  misunder- 
standings "  in  its  bosom.  At  first,  the  responsibility 
of  peace  was  not  accepted  with  sufficient  loyalty.  One 
would  have  preferred  to  see,  under  these  painful  cir- 
cumstances, the  Assembly  in  mourning  voting  silently : 
what  more  eloquent  protest  before  the  universe  than 
such  mourning  and  such  silence?  Now  it  appears 
that,  in  certain  groups,  an  effort  was  made  to  shirk,  in 
some  degree,  the  responsibility  of  that  peace  which 
was  being  imposed  upon  them,  as  though  with  a  con- 
cealed intention  to  make  use  of  it  later  on,  in  the  in- 
terests of  a  party.  The  nation  itself  was  destined  to 
disappoint  these  perfidious  calculations,  of  her  own 
initiative.  The  treaty  of  1871  never  suffered  the  fate 
of  the  treaties  of  1815.  Men  knew  that  it  was  inevit- 
able :  the  people  were  convinced  that  everything  had 
been  done  to  make  its  conditions  less  harsh,  and  that 
unless  the  national  dignity  were  humbled,  its  repre- 
sentatives could  have  done  no  more. 

"I  call  that  Frenchman  a  good  citizen,"  says  Prevost- 
Paradol,  "who  rejects  none  of  the  forms  of  free  gov- 

1  Ch.  de  Mazade,  Revue  des  Deux  Mondes.    Chronique. 

2  Ibid. 


16  THE  EVOLUTION  OF  FRANCE. 

eminent,  who  does  not  tolerate  the  idea  of  troubling 
the  repose  of  his  country  by  his  ambitions  and  his 
personal  preferences,  who  is  neither  intoxicated  nor 
disgusted  by  the  words  republic  or  monarchy,  and  who 
confines  his  demands  to  one  single  desire :  that  the 
country  shall  itself  regulate  its  own  destiny  by  the 
means  of  assemblies  freely  elected,  and  of  responsible 
ministers."^  It  is  perfectly  certain  that  such  was  the 
dominating  spirit  among  the  electors  of  the  National 
Assembly ;  it  was  not  so  among  those  elected  :  a  cer- 
tain number  of  deputies,  new  to  politics,  belonged 
to  that  class  of  country  squires  who  had  sulked 
at  the  Empire  and  been  jealous  of  the  Parisians, 
and  who  passed  one  half  of  their  existence  in  hunt- 
ing, the  other  half  in  regretting  the  former  state  of 
things. 

By  their  side  sat  several  over-excited  republicans 
who  could  not  pardon  the  4th  of  September  for  having 
occurred  without  their  assistance,  and  who  tried  to  ex- 
aggerate the  doctrines  of  the  most  conspicuous  men  of 
their  own  party.  The  former  owed  their  warrant  to 
the  influence  which  their  landed  estates  assured  them 
in  the  country  districts ;  the  latter,  to  the  effect  pro- 
duced, in  certain  quarters,  by  their  violent  declama- 
tions and  their  fallacious  promises.  Both  sets  were 
"  intoxicated  or  disgusted  by  the  words  republic  and 
monarchy."  Thus,  from  the  start,  the  situation  was 
clearly  defined  in  the  form  which  it  was  destined  to 
preserve  for  twenty  years  ;  the  Republic  found  itself 
called  upon,  on  the  very  first  day,  to  realize  that  equi- 
librium which  was  to  be  the  condition  of  its  existence, 
by  seeking  in  the  support  of  the  moderate  parties  a 
safeguard   against   the   exaggerations   of   the  extreme 

1  La  France  Nouvelle,  by  Prevost-Paradol. 


EARLY   TEARS   OF  THE  REPUBLIC.  17 

parties,  against  the  irreconcilable  opposition  of  the 
monarchists,  and  against  the  ultra  views  of  that  radi- 
calism of  which  Ernest  Picard  had  so  justly  said,  in 
1869,  that  it  "was  not  a  policy,  but  an  attitude." 

The  Assembly  was  on  the  point  of  entering  energeti- 
cally upon  its  work,  when  the  communist  insurrection 
broke  out  in  Paris.  This  filled  the  measure  of  our  mis- 
fortunes. In  spite  of  the  attempts  which  have  since 
been  made  to  attribute  to  this  movement  a  socialistic 
and  humanitarian  character  which  it  never  possessed, 
time,  which  softens  most  things,  has  detracted  noth- 
ing from  the  horror  of  the  gloomy  memories  of  1871. 
The  assassination  of  Generals  Lecomte  and  Clement 
Thomas,  the  second  siege  of  Paris,  the  orgies  and  buf- 
fooneries of  the  Commune,  the  massacre  of  the  last  days, 
and  that  filthy  and  bestial  ending  in  blood  and  petro- 
leum passed  over  France  like  a  nightmare.  French 
hands  tore  from  its  pedestal  the  Vendome  Column,  that 
monument  made  of  bronze  painfully  conquered  for  the 
glory  of  the  country  by  simple  soldiers,  obscure  heroes 
whose  very  names  we  do  not  know;  the  tricolored  flag, 
under  whose  folds  they  had  fought,  was  ruined  on  the 
soil  of  Paris  along  with  the  column,  and  the  Prussians, 
under  whose  eyes  this  had  taken  place,  rejoiced,  for  the 
defeat  surpassed  their  expectations,  since  ignominy 
crowned  it.  The  population  of  Paris  endured  the 
Commune  rather  than  took  part  in  it;  it  had  fallen 
"  from  the  summit  of  the  most  immense  illusions  which 
a  besieged  population  had  ever  conceived,  into  a  reality 
which  unfortunately  it  had  been  impossible  to  reveal 
to  it  in  advance."^  Enervated  by  sufferings  and 
anguish,  it  had  not  been  able  to  free  itself  from  the 

1  Testimony  of  M.  Jules  Ferry  on  March  18,  before  the  Committee  of 
Inquiry. 


18  THE  EVOLUTION   OF  FRANCE. 

action  of  a  staff  of  idle  cosmopolitans,  either  criminal  or 
insane,  who  were  trying  to  take  advantage  of  a  situa- 
tion unprecedented  in  modern  history.  An  eclipse  of 
authority  ^  had  delivered  Paris  into  their  hands  ;  it  was 
necessary  to  besiege  the  capital,  and  seize  it  by  force. 

The  country,  invigorated  and  fortified  by  its  re- 
cent misfortunes,  grouped  itself  resolutely  around  jNI. 
Thiers.  The  army,  without  hesitation,^  fulfilled  its  pain- 
ful mission.  Some  deputies  and  municipal  councillors 
wished  to  summon,  at  Bordeaux,  a  sort  of  congress  of 
municipalities,  which  should  arbitrate  between  Paris 
and  Versailles.  But  the  government  repelled  this 
dangerous  proposition,  and  prohibited  any  demonstra- 
tion. It  was  not  born  solely  from  the  desire  of  certain 
radicals  to  depend  upon  the  cities  to  counterbalance  the 
influence  of  those  who  were  called  "  the  Versaillais," 
and  whom  they  considered  too  "  rural."  Many  persons 
who  were  destined  to  receive  enlightenment,  through 
the  fall  of  the  Commune,  as  to  its  origin  and  tendencies, 
were  mistaken  as  to  its  scope.  This  conflict  between 
the  citizens  of  one  nation  would  cause,  it  seemed  to 
them,  a,  fissure  in  the  unity  of  France ;  they  asked  them- 
selves whether  the  country  would  remain  compact  after 
the  shock,  and  they  feared  to  see  deep  cracks  make 
their  appearance  on  its  surface,  —  the  symptoms  of  dis- 
integration. To-day,  the  war  of  1870  and  the  events 
which  followed  it  no  longer  appear  to  us  as  anything 

1  See  the  despatches  exchanged  in  the  course  of  the  day  of  March  18, 
between  M.  Jules  Ferry,  Mayor  of  Paris,  General  Valentin,  Prefect  of 
Police,  and  the  ministers.  In  spite  of  M.  Jules  Ferry,  who  held  his  ground 
energetically  in  the  City  Hall,  and  was  the  last  to  leave  it,  the  barracks, 
the  Prefecture  of  Police,  and,  at  last,  the  City  Hall  itself  were  evacuated, 
one  after  the  other,  at  the  incomprehensible  command  given,  and  several 
times  repeated,  of  General  Vinoy. 

*  On  March  18,  the  troops,  at  many  points,  fraternized  with  the  in- 
surgents. 


EARLY  TEARS   OF  THE  REPUBLIC.  19 

more  than  a  violent  but  passing  crisis,  and  not  the  most 
violent  or  the  most  dangerous  which  France  has  under- 
gone ;  one  must  go  back  in  thought  to  that  troubled 
epoch,  in  order  to  understand  the  state  of  mind  of  those 
who  had  just  passed  through  it,  and  the  terrible  per- 
turbation which  they  still  retained  from  it. 

This  second  part  of  the  crisis  had  marked  moral  ruins, 
which  presented  themselves  to  join  the  material  ruins, 
and  rendered  the  work  of  reconstruction  still  more  dif- 
ficult. It  was  clearly  evident  that  France  lacked  "  the 
first  condition  of  being  a  free  State,  the  most  simple 
perception  of  law."  In  the  case  of  all,  there  was  "a 
veritable  outburst  of  individual  fancies,  a  wild  desire  to 
do  what  one  had  no  right  to  do,"  ^  the  product  of  that 
systematic  isolation  between  citizens,  of  those  individ- 
ualist theories,  established  and  propagated  by  the  Em- 
pire, which  found  its  own  advantage  therein.  From 
another  point  of  view,  the  Civil  War  laid  bare  in  tragic 
wise  "that  work  of  demoralization  which  was  going 
on  in  the  bosom  of  society.  It  was  hardly  suspected. 
France  was  living  in  the  height  of  luxury,  of  comfort  and 
equivocal  pleasures,  while  underneath  were  being  devel- 
oped those  ideas  of  an  abject  materialism,  those  cupidi- 
ties, and  those  confused  hatreds  which  have  weakened 
the  sense  of  country  as  much  as  the  moral  sense." ^ 
The  responsibility  for  this  was  thrown  upon  the  Inter- 
nationale, to  which  Jules  Favre  called  the  attention  of 
our  representatives  abroad  in  a  diplomatic  circular, 
that  appeared  at  the  precise  moment  when  "the 
Brethren"  of  Belgium,  England,  and  Switzerland  had 
associated  themselves  in  the  work  of  the  Commune, 
glorifying  its  crimes. 

1  Ch.  de  Mazade,  Revue  des  Deux  Mondes.    Chronique. 


20  THE  EVOLUTION  OF  FRANCE. 

The  immediate  results  of  the  Commune  were  an  in- 
crease in  the  expenses  which  we  should  be  obliged  to 
face,  and  an  aggravation  of  M.  de  Bismarck's  hostile 
designs.  The  chancellor  could  not  let  slip  the  op- 
portunity which  was  offered  to  him  of  still  further 
accentuating  the  evident  state  of  disorganization  and 
demoralization  in  France ;  he  made  haste  to  declare 
that  the  Prussians  would  continue  to  occupy  French 
territory  until  the  German  government  should  deem 
that  "  order  was  sufficiently  restored,  in  France  as  well 
as  in  Paris,  to  assure  the  execution  of  the  obligations 
which  had  been  contracted."* 

It  might  have  been  foreseen  that  the  excessive  cen- 
tralization of  the  Second  Empire  would  provoke,  in  the 
very  beginning  of  the  new  order  of  things,  a  movement 
of  reaction  which  would  manifest  itself  in  the  form  of 
some  legislative  proposition.  In  fact,  one  of  the  fun- 
damental laws  of  the  Third  Republic,  one  of  those  which 
have,  probably,  exercised  the  most  influence  upon  its 
future,  came  under  discussion  when  peace  had  barely 
been  re-established  :  that  called  the  law  of  the  General 
Councils,  which  was  reported  by  M.  Waddington. 
However,  the  movement  in  favor  of  decentralization 
did  not  spring  from  a  reaction  alone  ;  it  was  of  ancient 
date.  It  dated  from  the  Restoration,  from  the  epoch 
when  MM.  de  Serre,  de  Martignac,  lloyer-CoUard,  had 
pronounced  in  favor  of  local  liberties.  In  1861  Odilon 
Barrot  had  extolled  them  again. ^  In  1863  M.  B^chard 
had  submitted  to  the  public  important  studies  upon 
this  subject.  In  a  celebrated  letter  addressed  to  M. 
Rouher^  Napoleon  III.  himself  had  recognized  the  ne- 
cessity of  a  reform,  but  he  had  immediately  furnished 

*  Official  Documents.  ^  Etudes  Conietnporaines, 

8  Dated  June  26, 1863. 


EARLY  YEARS   OF  THE  REPUBLIC.  21 

an  antidote  to  his  thought,  by  appearing  to  wish  that 
some  of  the  prerogatives  of  the  Minister  of  the  Interior 
should  be  transferred  to  the  prefects.  Nevertheless, 
he  granted  his  patronage  to  the  work  of  Fr^d^ric  Le 
Play,  a  work  of  which  decentralization  constituted,  in 
a  way,  the  alpha  and  the  omega. 

Then  it  was  that  a  group  of  men  from  Lorraine  worked 
out  the  famous  Programme  of  Nancy  :  among  them  were 
men  of  very  diverse  opinions,  —  republicans,  members  of 
the  liberal  Union,  royalists.^  These  men  proceeded  to 
a  sort  of  general  consultation  of  opinion.  It  seemed 
as  though  they  were  about  to  declare  a  crusade  against 
"  the  State,"  —  that  fiction  which  held  its  credentials  from 
a  bureaucracy  infatuated  with  itself,  and  propagated  by 
the  silliness  of  all  the  doctors  of  science  in  the  adminis- 
tration .^  All  those  people  who  were  to  be  made  to  believe 
"  that  there  are  somewhere,  in  Paris,  and  in  the  prefec- 
tures, men  better  informed  as  to  communal  affairs,  and 
more  competent  to  judge  than  the  persons  interested 
themselves,"  ^  were  about  to  rise  up  in  rebellion  against 
a  state  of  things  of  which  they  had  felt  all  the  disad- 
vantages. 

One  curious  point  —  the  law  which  reorganized  the 
General  Councils  —  was  vigorously  attacked  on  the  ex- 

1  MM.  Volland,  Larcher,  Cournault,  de  I'i^pee  (who  died  tragically,  as 
Prefect  of  the  Loire),  the  Cointe  de  Lambel. 

2  Letter  from  M.  Jules  Ferry  to  the  authors  of  the  Programme  of 
Nancy. 

3  "The  Commune  is  only  a  collective  peasant,  vegetating  in  poverty 
and  dependence.  Those  who,  desirous  of  breaking  old  oppositions,  have 
broken  the  country  into  crumbs  have  forgotten  that  moral  beings,  like 
animated  bodies,  require  air  to  breathe,  room  to  live.  The  little  communes 
(and  they  are  innumerable)  have  remained  real  children :  large  or  small, 
however,  in  the  eyes  of  the  law  every  commune  is  a  minor.  Lawsuits, 
works,  revenues,  affairs  of  the  highways  and  streets,  and  common  lands, 
everything  is  regulated  at  the  chief  town,  even  at  the  Ministry."  (Jules 
Ferry,  La  Lutte  Elector  ale  en  1863.) 


22  THE  EVOLUTION   OF  FRANCE. 

treme  Left,  which  caused  it  to  be  said  that  "nothing 
loves  centralization  like  a  radical,  on  condition  that  he 
can  make  use  of  it."  Even  on  the  Left  it  sowed  uneasi- 
ness :  M.  Ernest  Picard  anticipated  overwhelming  dis- 
asters ;  M.  Thiers  did  not  seem  favorably  disposed 
towards  these  rash  measures.  Notwithstanding,  the 
law  was  passed  with  several  amendments,  so  conscious 
were  men  of  the  accuracy  of  M.  Ernoul's  saying  : 
"Do  not  you  feel  that  in  France  the  extremities  are 
cold?"  M.  de  Treveneuc,  who  remembered  the  2d 
of  December,  proposed  that  the  General  Councils 
should  take  the  place,  by  uniting  together,  of  the 
national  representation,  in  case  the  latter  should  be 
dissolved  by  some  violent  measure ;  that  question  was 
postponed.  1 

The  first  signs  of  our  recovery  had  not  been  slow  to 
reveal  themselves.  The  first  questions  which  were  laid 
before  the  Assembly  had  been  financial  questions.  From 
a  little  more  than  ten  milliards  of  francs,  the  French 
debt  was  to  mount  at  a  bound  to  twenty  milliards. 
What  savings  could  fill  such  an  abyss  ?  M.  Pouyer 
Quertier  proposed  a  first  loan  of  two  milliards.  Paris 
alone  surpassed  by  five  hundred  millions,  and  all  France 
by  a  milliard  and  a  half  the  necessary  subscription.  With 

1  A  little  later  on  it  was  decided  in  the  affirmative.  Nevertheless,  it  is 
not  very  probable  that  the  occasion  to  make  use  of  this  arrangement  will 
ever  present  itself,  for  it  assumes  some  violent  action  operating  directly 
contrary  to  the  will  of  the  nation.  In  the  neighborhood  of  May  16,  sev- 
eral General  Councils  officiously  considered  the  possibility,  and  very 
vaguely  at  that,  of  making  use  of  the  prerogative  which  the  Treveneuc 
law  conferred  upon  them.  But  no  one  seems  to  have  troubled  himself 
about  it  later  on,  at  the  time  of  the  Bonlanger  adventure. 

As  for  politics,  men  were  firmly  determined  to  keep  it  entirely  apart 
from  their  discussions.  As  early  as  the  session  of  August,  1872,  several 
political  desires  were  expressed,  but  outside  of  the  sittings.  The  first  ap- 
pearances of  the  General  Councils  were,  on  the  whole,  very  modest, 
practical,  and  reassuring. 


EARLY  YEARS   OF  THE  REPUBLIC.  23 

the  subscriptions  from  abroad  live  milliards,  and  more, 
of  the  war  debt  were  procured.  In  the  following  year 
(1872)  the  Minister  of  Finance  betook  himself  to  Ber- 
lin for  the  purpose  of  negotiating  there  the  anticipated 
liberation  of  our  territory ;  on  June  29,  1872,  a  second 
treaty,  signed  at  Versailles,  settled  the  details.  At  the 
same  time,  a  second  loan  was  decided  upon,  of  three 
milliards  and  a  half,  which  was  covered  fifteen  times 
over.  Paris  subscribed  14  milliards  ;  the  country  dis- 
tricts, 10  ;  England,  334  millions  ;  Holland,  170  ;  Stras- 
bourg, 44,  and  Mulhouse,  22.  This  event  excited  lively 
enthusiasm.  "  Without  doubt,"  wrote  M.  de  Mazade,i 
''  such  a  loan,  at  the  price  at  which  it  has  been  issued, 
that  is  to  say,  at  about  six  per  cent,  is  a  very  good  piece 
of  business  .  .  .  but,  as  a  matter  of  fact,  whatever  may 
be  the  advantages,  money  does  not  rush  forward  with 
such  eagerness  for  a  financial  operation  alone  ;  a  phe- 
nomenon which  exhibits  itself  in  such  proportions  is  no 
longer  a  simple  financial  event." 

Already,  unfortunately,  the  public  mind  was  turning- 
aside  from  these  serious  questions  in  search  of  others 
more  sensational  and  more  attractive.  The  entrance 
of  Victor  Emmanuel  into  Rome,  a  manifesto  from  the 
Comte  de  Chambord,^  a  speech  by  Gambetta  at  Bor- 
deaux, and  a  book  by  General  Chanzy  on  the  second 
army  of  the  Loire,  the  entrance  of  Littre  to  the  French 
Academy,  followed  by  the  noisy  resignation  of  Monsei- 
gneur  Dupanloup,  the  election  of  the  Due  d'Aumale  in 
the  department  of  Oise,  of  the  Prince  de  Joinville  in 
that  of  Haute-Marne,  and  the  questions  as  to  whether 
they  would   occupy  their  seats  as  deputies,  or  would 

1  Revue  des  Deux  Mondes.    Chronique. 

2 This  manifesto,  dated  July 5,  1871,  was  described  as  "artless  abdica- 
tion " ;  it  excited  great  enthusiasm  iu  certain  circles. 


24  THE  EVOLUTION   OF  FRANCE. 

abstain   from  appearing  at  the  Assembly,  —  all  these 
petty  events  strongly  excited  public  opinion. 

On  August  31,  1871,  at  the  instance  of  M.  Rivet,  the 
title  of  President  of  the  Republic  had  been  conferred 
upon  M.  Thiers,  for  a  period  of  three  years.  The  only 
object  of  this  was  to  set  right  his  position  in  the  eyes 
of  foreign  countries,  and  of  France,  which  he  repre- 
sented to  them.  M.  Rivet's  proposition  had  been  carried 
by  480  votes  against  93  ;  but  what  frivolity  of  mind  had 
been  betrayed  by  the  stormy  discussions  for  which  this 
palliative  proposition  furnished  the  pretext !  While 
the  first  elections  to  the  General  Councils  ^  were  taking 
place  in  the  midst  of  universal  indifference,  and  were 
remarkable  chiefly  for  the  number  of  those  who  abstained 
from  voting,  Bonapartists  and  radicals  began  a  vigor- 
ous campaign  in  favor  of  dissolving  the  Assembly. 
Recovery  seemed  to  lend  strength  only  to  the  parties, 
and  that  in  order  that  they  might  the  better  wage  battle 
with  each  other.  On  the  Right,  the  only  thought  was 
to  keep  a  monarchy  "  ready  made."  The  royalists,  in 
their  claims,  associated  the  re-establishment  of  the 
Pope's  temporal  power  and  the  Carlist  restoration  in 
Spain  on  the  return  of  Henri  V.  They  multiplied  their 
pilgrimages  to  Lourdes,  and  to  La  Salette,  as  well  as  to 
Antwerp,  when  the  Comte  de  Chambord  was  passing 
that  way.  The  Bonapartists  audaciously  raised  their 
heads  ;  one  day,  M.  Rouher  was  heard  to  deliver  him- 
self, in  the  open  Chamber,  of  a  panegyric  on  the  Second 
Empire,  to  which,  however,  the  Due  d'Audiffret-Pas- 
quier  replied  in  accents  of  indignant  eloquence.  Both 
parties  seemed  anxious,  above  all,  "  to  work  at  dishonor- 
ing the  government  of  the  National  Defence. "^ 

1  October  8,  1871. 

2  E.  de  Pressense',  Vari6t4s  Morales  et  Politiques.    Paris,  1886. 


EARLY   YEARS   OF  THE   REPUBLIC.  25 

The  advanced  republicans,  also,  were  lacking  in  wis- 
dom. It  became  necessary  to  prohibit  their  celebrat- 
ing, by  rejoicings,  the  anniversary  of  September  4, 
and  to  remind  them  that  "  if  the  4th  of  September  re- 
calls the  fall  of  the  Empire,  it  also  recalls  the  fall  of 
France  at  Sedan."  Gambetta  made  his  tour  of  France. 
Angers,  Havre,  Saint-Etienne,  Grenoble,  and  Annecy 
heard  him  in  turn.  He  was  not  always  perfectly  in- 
spired. His  speech  at  Grenoble,  in  particular,  was  such 
as  to  make  M.  Thiers  declare  that  our  liberation  would 
be  impeded  by  it.  "  The  harm  which  the  speech  at 
Grenoble  has  done  to  industry  and  business,"  he  said, 
"can  be  represented  by  enormous  figures."^  Several 
officers  who  had  been  present  at  the  demonstration  were 
punished  ;  at  the  same  time,  the  municipal  agents  who 
had  exceeded  their  duties  were  suspended.  Finally,  as 
a  measure  of  state  policy.  Prince  Napoleon  was  invited 
to  leave  France,  where  his  presence  inflamed  political 
hatreds.  This  satisfied  no  one.  On  the  one  hand,  the 
government  was  accused  of  crime  in  keeping  the  func- 
tionaries of  September  4  ;  and  on  the  other  hand,  it 
was  reproached  with  maintaining  or  replacing  the  func- 
tionaries of  the  Empire. 

In  this  contest  M.  Thiers'  credit  rapidly  vanished, 
and  his  authority  declined. 

1  A  few  days  later  he.declared  before  the  permanent  committee  of  the 
Assembly  that  this  speech  "  had  made  the  Republic  lose  more  ground  than 
it  could  have  been  made  to  lose  by  the  hand  of  all  its  enemies."  There 
was  an  evident  exaggeration  in  this  assertion. 


26  THE  EVOLUTION  OF  FRANCE. 


CHAPTER   II. 

THE  EARLY  YEARS  OF   THE  REPUBLIC.     {Conclusion.) 

M.  Thiers,  Head  of  the  State,  and  Prime  Minister.  —  The  Message  of 
November  12,  1872.  —  The  First  Presidential  Crisis.  —  Fusion,  and  the 
White  Flag.  —  How  the  Monarchists  helped  to  make  the  Republic. — 
Violent  Debates. — The  Discipline  of  the  Republicans,  and  the  Legisla- 
tive Elections. 

The  exceptional  point  in  M.  Thiers'  position  was 
that,  while  head  of  the  State,  he  was  also  Prime  Minis- 
ter.^ He  had  acquired  the  habit  of  interfering  in  the 
smallest  discussion,  and  every  moment  he  kept  putting 
the  question  as  to  confidence.  On  many  points  he  was 
in  harmony  with  the  majority  of  the  Assembly  ;  but 
when  he  encountered  a  few  opponents,  his  old  auto- 
cratic habits  got  the  upper  hand  again,  and  he  was  not 
in  the  least  sparing  of  his  disdain  for  those  who  did 
not  share  his  opinion.  It  has  irreverently  been  said  of 
him  that  "  he  had  the  temper  of  a  nervous  woman,  or 
of  an  old  spoiled  child. "  ^  Without  going  so  far  as 
that,  it  must  be  admitted  that  his  language  very  often 
wounded  and  shocked  the  Assembly. 

1  M.  Thiers'  life  is  too  well  known  to  make  it  necessary  to  dwell  long 
upon  it  in  this  place.  Under  the  Restoration,  he  had  created  oppositions: 
the  Monarchy  of  July  was,  in  part,  his  work.  It  was  he  who  gave  the 
signal  for  the  movement  which  bore  Louis  Philippe  to  the  throne.  Later 
on,  he  became  Prime  Minister,  and  although  his  administration  was  not 
marked  by  any  particular  cleverness  on  his  part,  or  by  any  happy  results, 
he  acquired  great  renown  in  a  very  short  time.  His  historical  works, 
VHistoire  de  la  Revolution  and  VHistoire  du  Consulat  et  de  V Empire,  are 
well  known,  —  works  which  possess  great  beauty  of  style,  but  the  exactness 
of  whose  judgment  and  statements  may  be  questioned. 

2  Joseph  d'Ar9ay,  Notes  inidites  sur  M.  Thiers.    Paris,  1888. 


EABLT   TEARS   OF  THE  REPUBLIC.  27 

The  Assembly,  in  its  turn,  wounded  and  shocked 
the  President.  1  He  would  have  liked  less  noise  and 
more  work.  According  to  a  barbarous  expression  of 
M.  Jules  Gr^vy,  they  were  constantly  "objectioning." 
During  the  session  there  was  a  perpetual  interchange 
of  questions,  sterile  agitation,  "  a  deafening  noise." 
M.  Thiers'  character  acquired  additional  acerbity  ;  the 
more  so  that,  in  this  withering  atmosphere,  he  was  con- 
scious of  being  in  perfect  accord  with  the  country  in 
the  efforts  which  he  made  to  thrust  aside  political 
questions,  and  to  make  questions  of  business  the  order 
of  the  day.  And  he  always  found  before  him  the  coa- 
lition of  monarchists  and  radicals,  anxious,  above  all 
things,  not  to  allow  themselves  to  be  appeased,  and  to 
maintain  opinion  in  a  state  of  uncertainty,  of  uneasi- 
ness favorable  to  the  hopes  of  their  parties.^  The  head 
of  the  State  thought  only  of  raising  the  credit  of  his 
government  by  wisdom  and  moderation,  not  only  with 
France,  but  also  with  foreign  nations,  and  was  irritated 
because  his  simple  and  patriotic  programme  did  not 
win  the  support  of  all,  and  that  men  could  think  more 
of  their  party  than  of  their  country. 

Certainl}'-,  he  was  quite  right ;  but  men  do  not  always 
allow  themselves  to  be  guided  by  the  most  lofty  motives, 
nor  by  the  rules  of  the  purest  logic.  There  certainly 
were  in  the  Assembly  —  as  the  future  proved  —  the  ele- 
ments of  a  majority  of  moderates.  M.  Thiers  did  not 
sufficiently  exert  himself  to  consolidate  it  and  render 
it  capable  of  life.  He  had  formed  his  ministry  in  a 
manner   but   little    in  conformity  with   parliamentary 


1  M.  Grevy  was  then  President  of  the  Assembly. 

2  "  The  Assembly,"  wrote  Jules  Ferry  afterwards,  "  was  a  great  school 
of  reticence.  Nothing  was  done  there  except  by  circuitous  paths."  (Cor- 
respondance  de  Jules  Ferry.  —  Letter  dated  November  17,  1877.) 


28  THE  EVOLUTION  OF  FRANCE. 

usages,  and  was  incarnating  a  Republic  of  the  very 
special  sort,  which  has  for  its  corner-stone  a  man  of 
Providence.  He  did  not  perceive  that  he  had  ceased 
to  be  that  man  of  Fate  as  soon  as  the  national  life  had 
resumed  its  normal  course.  They  kept  him,  it  is  true, 
in  a  very  dangerous  state  of  illusions,  by  appealing  to 
him  under  all  circumstances,  as  they  would  have  done 
to  a  dictator.  When  elections  of  a  rather  advanced 
type  took  place,  one  after  the  other,  in  the  Nord, 
Somme,  Yonne,  a  procession  of  delegates  belonging  to 
different  shades  of  the  Right  solemnly  came  to  the  head 
of  the  State,  at  Versailles,  to  request  him  to  take 
"measures  of  preservation."  The  Republic  under 
M.  Thiers  was,  accordingly,  in  the  highest  degree,  a 
personal  government. 

On  January  19,  1872,  when  the  Assembly  refused  to 
sanction  the  tax  on  raw  materials,  the  head  of  the 
State  sent  in  his  resignation.  It  became  necessary 
that  a  new  vote  should  annul  the  preceding  one,  and 
that  the  deputies  should  take  a  step  with  regard  to  M. 
Thiers  which  resembled  an  act  of  penitence.  A  little 
later  came  the  law  of  military  reorganization.  He  took 
an  active  interest  in  it,  and  discussed  its  provisions 
with  ardor.  His  ordinary  claims  were  still  further  ex- 
aggerated when  it  was  a  question  of  anything  which 
concerned  the  arm}^^  by  everything  which  his  histori- 
cal labors  had  taught  him  with  regard  to  Napoleon's 
strategy.  "  He  occupied  himself  minutely  with  all  the 
details  of  the  War  Administration;  the  army  of  Paris 
did  not  make  a  single  movement  without  his  orders."  ^ 

1  Greneral  Le  Flo,  Minister  of  War,  is  credited  with  this  charmingly- 
ironical  bit  of  wit :  "  M.  Thiers'  military  knowledge  causes  considerable 
inconvenience,  through  the  deference  which  it  exacts  and  the  suscepti- 
bility which  it  creates." 

2  Jules  Simon,  Le  Gouvemement  de  M.  Thiers. 


EABLY   YEABS   OF  THE  REPUBLIC.  29 

As  for  the  despatches,  they  all  passed  under  his  eye. 
He  wished  to  know,  moment  by  moment,  the  state  of 
France,  and  that  of  Europe.  "  So  long  as  Jules  Favre 
was  Minister  of  Foreign  Affairs,"  says  M.  Jules  Simon,i 
"he  lodged  him  in  his  own  house,  in  order  that  he 
might  have  the  news  more  speedily  at  hand  :  every  day 
he  had  conferences  with  the  Minister  of  the  Interior 
and  Avith  the  Minister  of  Finance.  He  made  the  gov- 
ernor of  the  Bank  and  the  great  financiers  come  to 
him."  2  It  is  plain  that  the  former  minister  of  Louis 
Philippe,  now  become  head  of  the  State,  did  not  prac- 
tise the  famous  maxim  with  which  he  had  paralyzed 
the  governmental  initiative  of  his  sovereign  :  "  The 
King  rules,  but  does  not  govern."  Nevertheless,  it  was 
under  the  shelter  of  this  principle,  which  conceals  a 
piece  of  profound  wisdom  beneath  its  apparent  lack  of 
logic,  that  the  Presidency  of  the  Republic  was  destined 
to  acquire  the  prestige  which  it  enjoyed  later  on. 

In  spite  of  all  that  has  been  said  to  prove  it,  it  does 
not  appear  certain  that  M.  Thiers  conceived,  from  the 
very  beginning,  the  firm  intention  to  establish  the  Re- 
public. This  was,  evidently,  one  of  the  solutions  of 
the  question  which  he  had  in  his  mind;  but  it  was  not 
the  only  one,  and  everything  indicates  that  the  mon- 
archists, by  constantly  refusing  him  the  means  of  gov- 
erning, inspired  him  with  the  resolve  to  seek  in  a 
definitive  Republic  that  support  which  a  provisional 
Republic  did  not  afford  him.  This  solution,  moreover, 
was   forced   upon   many  men  who  were  separated  by 

1  Jules  Simon,  Le  Gouvernement  de  M.  Thiers. 

2  "  Only  two  ministries  remained  outside  the  scope  of  his  meddling  and 
his  superintendence,"  M.Jules  Simon  wittily  adds,  —  "Justice,  because  it 
is  not  good  to  interfere  with  the  affairs  of  M.  Dufaure;  Public  Education 
and  Religion,  because  he  relied,  for  these  two  points,  upon  the  prudence 
and  intelligence  of  the  minister." 


30  THE  EVOLUTION   OF  FRANCE. 

their  past  from  republican  doctrines,  but  who  placed 
concern  for  the  national  interests  above  everything  else. 
In  the  course  of  the  long  debate  over  the  revision  of  the 
acts  of  the  administration  before  and  during  the  war, 
the  Due  d'Audiffret-Pasquier,  General  Chanzy,  and 
others  had  very  clearly  defined  what  political  course 
they  intended  to  follow,  drawing  their  inspiration  only 
from  the  immediate  needs  of  France  and  adjourning 
every  question  which  was  likely  to  hamper  the  recovery 
of  the  country.  Others,  taking  into  consideration  the 
succession  of  governments  in  France,  went  further. 
"  In  the  course  of  almost  an  entire  century  of  succes- 
sive revolutions,"  wrote  M.  Casimir-Perier,^  "  all  forms 
of  government  have  been  tried,  turn  and  turn  about, 
save  one,  —  that  of  a  regular  Republic,  loyally  accepted 
by  the  majority  of  the  nation,  served  without  prejudice 
on  the  one  hand,  and  without  weakness  on  the  other. 
This  trial  remains  to  be  made  ;  let  us  make  it  coura- 
geously and  honestly." 

Such  is  the  programme  which  M.  Thiers  decided 
upon. 

The  message  at  the  opening  of  the  Assembly,  on 
November  11,  1872,  expressed  in  terms  of  luminous 
clearness,  urged  that  body  to  a  "  great  and  decisive  " 
session,  in  the  course  of  which  the  "  desirable  and  neces- 
sary character  should  be  imprinted  on  the  Republic." 
"  France,"  said  M.  Thiers  to  the  agitators  of  the  Right 
and  of  the  Left,  "does  not  wish  to  live  in  a  state  of 
continual  alarm ;  "  and  every  one  understood  that  that 
simple  statement  of  an  undeniable  fact  constituted  a 
demand,  in  due  form  of  law,  upon  the  representatives 
of  the  nation. 

1  M.  Casimir-Perier  was  the  son  of  Louis  Philippe's  minister,  and  father 
of  the  future  President  of  the  French  Republic. 


EARLY   YEARS   OF  THE  REPUBLIC.  31 

The  emotion  and  din  caused  by  this  message  were 
considerable :  M.  de  Kerdrel  became  the  interpreter 
of  the  feelings  which  agitated  the  Assembly,  when  he 
called  for  the  nomination  of  a  committee  which  should 
prepare  a  reply  to  the  President's  manifesto.  In  the 
meanwhile,  after  stormy  debates,  an  order  of  the  day 
was  passed  which  censured  the  doctrines  set  forth  at 
Grenoble  by  Gambetta,  and  expressed,  on  the  other 
hand,  the  traditional  confidence  in  the  government.^ 
The  committee  soon  made  known  its  conclusions. 
M.  Thiers  had  declared  :  "  The  Republic  will  be  con- 
servative, or  it  will  not  be  at  all,"  and,  at  the  same 
time,  he  had  called  for  the  prompt  organization  of  the 
public  powers.  The  committee  ended  in  the  prepa- 
ration of  a  law  "touching  ministerial  responsibility," 
and,  by  way  of  counterpoise,  with  the  adoption  of 
measures  "against  radicalism."  It  was  not  necessary 
to  be  very  perspicacious  to  divine  that  this  second  con- 
clusion was  the  only  one  to  which  any  importance  was 
attached.  "  A  -fighting  government "  must  be  created  ; 
M.  Batbie's  entire  report  is  summed  up  in  that  phrase. 
The  ministry  could  not  accept  such  a  legal  demand  ;  it 
carried  the  day,  but  by  a  majority  of  only  thirty-five 
votes.  2 

This  debate  has  an  importance  which  has  not  been 
understood,  and  which  was  not  presented,  later  on,  by 
either  the  famous  Wallon  amendment,  nor  by  the  pas- 
sage of  the  constitutional  laws.  In  reality,  it  was  on 
that  day  that  the  liberal  and  parliamentiary  Republic 
received  from  the  Assembly  its  true  consecration ;  the 
support  of  the  illustrious  citizen,  upon  whom  the  coun- 
try had  set  her  confidence,  and  whose  faults  and  petti- 

1  Three  hundred,  on  the  Right  and  the  Left,  abstained  from  voting. 

2  Three  hundred  and  thirty-five  votes  on  the  Right  condemned  him. 


32  THE  EVOLUTION   OF  FRANCE. 

nesses  could  not  diminish  his  merit,  secured  tlie  victor}'^, 
which,  moreover,  was  facilitated  by  the  intestine  quar- 
rels of  the  partisans  of  the  monarchy. 

They  seemed  to  understand  it  on  the  Right ;  from 
that  day  forth,  M.  Thiers  became  the  common  enemy. 
The  royalists  of  the  undiscoverable  Chamber  ex- 
claimed, in  1816,  that  M.  de  Richelieu,  M.  Decazes,  and 
Louis  XVIII.  had  conspired  together  "to  ruin  every- 
thing." The  conservatives  of  the  National  Assembly 
saw  in  M.  Thiers  a  "traitor  to  the  conservative  cause." 

The  extreme  Left,  on  its  part,  repudiated  this  moder- 
ate Republic  ;  in  their  eyes  it  was  not  the  true  Re- 
public. Garibaldi,  from  the  seclusion  of  his  island, 
protested  against  the  label  which  M.  Thiers  had  at- 
tached to  his  government.  Petitions  in  favor  of  the 
dissolution  of  the  Assembly  were  circulated ;  at  Ver- 
sailles combinations,  committees,  motions,  questions, 
began  again  worse  than  ever. 

The  parties  accused  each  other,  reciprocally,  of  hav- 
ing torn  up  "  the  Bordeaux  compact,"  which  in  this 
manner,  by  a  singular  mirage-like  effect,  acquired  a 
retrospective  importance.  This  ended  the  year  1872, 
which  had,  moreover,  been  fertile  in  all  sorts  of  events  : 
in  the  month  of  September,  an  interview  had  taken 
place  between  the  three  Emperors ;  a  radical,  cosmo- 
politan congress,  for  "  the  emancipation  of  labor,"  had 
been  held  at  The  Hague,  and  the  arbitration  of  Switzer- 
land had  put  an  end  to  the  famous  "  Alabama  "  conflict 
between  England  and  the  United  States.  When  one 
reflects  upon  what  has  become  of  the  Triple  Alliance, 
socialism  and  arbitration,  he  begins  to  think  that  our 
deputies  did  not  turn  their  attention  to  the  objects 
which  were  most  worthy  of  it. 

It  was  the  country  which  undertook  to  furnish  some 


EARLY   YEARS   OF  THE  REPUBLIC.  33 

electoral  indications  capable  of  throwing  light  upon 
this  obscure  situation  ;  its  immediate  will  was  confined 
to  this,  —  to  avoid  all  new  revolutions.  As  the  conserva- 
tives gave  it,  on  this  score,  no  security,  it  elected  repub- 
licans. Marseilles  sent  M.  Lockroy,  and  the  Rhone, 
M.  Ranc.  Gironde,  the  Jura,  Nievre,  Loir-et-Cher,  and 
Haute-Vienne  chose  republicans  of  more  or  less  ad- 
vanced type.  But  the  most  important  event  was  the 
election  of  M.  Barodet  at  Paris.  The  former  Mayor  of 
Lyons,  M.  Barodet,  was  the  candidate  of  the  "  reds,"  as 
the  advanced  republicans  were  then  called ;  his  com- 
petitor was  M.  de  Remusat,  the  Minister  of  Foreign 
Affairs,  a  man  of  fine  and  distinguished  mind,  but  not 
much  known  to  the  masses,  and  misunderstood  by  the 
ultra-republican  parties.  The  encounter  between  these 
two  competitors,  of  so  different  a  stamp,  and,  it  must 
be  confessed,  of  such  unequal  value,  excited  public 
opinion  to  the  highest  degree.  The  electoral  duel 
between  M.  Jacques  and  General  Boulanger,  on  Janu- 
ary 27,  1889,  alone  may  serve  to  give  an  idea  of  the 
feverish  intensity  of  the  struggle. ^ 

M.  Barodet  was  elected,  as  General  Boulanger  was 
destined  to  be  later  on,  by  that  portion  of  the  popula- 
tion of  Paris  whose  good  qualities  and  defects  are  so 
strangely  combined  that  strangers  have  never  been  able 
to  understand  them.  Heroic  in  time  of  war,  capable  of 
displaying  in  a  crisis  as  much  calmness  as  it  puts  of  joy- 
ous turbulence  into  its  pleasures,  it  excels  in  grasping 
the  fine  shades  of  things,  and  in  amusing  itself  there- 
with.    It  does  not  raise  an  opposition  to  the  govern- 

1  The  conservatives  would  not  vote  for  the  Minister  of  Foreign  Affairs 
of  the  Republic,  the  personal  friend  of  the  head  of  the  State.  At  the  last 
moment  they  improvised  the  candidacy  of  General  Stoffel,  who  drew  away 
27,000  votes.  M.  Barodet  was  elected  by  180,000  votes;  his  rival  received 
only  ia"),000. 
n 


34  THE  EVOLUTION   OF  FRANCE. 

ment ;  it  teases,  embarrasses,  vexes  it ;  it  is  neither 
logical  nor  persevering,  never  troubles  itself  about  the 
morrow,  and  apprehends  badly  the  relation  between 
cause  and  effect.  It  is  not  without  analogy  to  the 
ancient  populace,  of  which  it  possesses  not  the  sangui- 
nary appetites,  but  the  injustices  and  frivolities. 

This  Paris  has  long  made  itself  felt  by  the  country 
districts,  and  through  the  country  districts,  by  Europe. 
Centralization,  dear  to  the  imperial  government,  has 
added  still  further  to  its  influence,  and  one  may  say 
that  the  Third  Republic  is  chiefly  remarkable  for  the 
importance  whicli  it  has  restored  to  provincial  life  and 
institutions.  From  the  beginning,  the  "  fear  of  Paris  " 
manifested  itself  among  the  moderates  of  the  National 
Assembly.  They  did  not  wish  to  take  the  government 
back  there ;  they  shrank  before  the  danger  of  extend- 
ing the  municipal  franchises,  and  the  members  from 
Paris  have  not  ceased  to  occupy  in  Parliament,  and 
before  the  government,  a  place  apart,  made  up  of  a 
little  respect  and  much  distrust. 

And,  although  experience  reassured  the  timid,  although 
later  events  have  demonstrated  the  falsity  of  the  signs 
indicated  by  the  Parisian  barometer,  people  have  not 
lost  the  habit,  in  moments  of  trouble,  uncertainty,  and 
anguish,  of  turning  towards  the  great  city,  as  they  ask 
themselves,  "  What  does  Paris  think  of  it  ? "  And 
Paris  replied  by  a  word  of  command  which  France  no 
longer  obeys. 

The  crisis  which  every  one  foresaw,  and  which  broke 
out  on  May  24,  1873,  was  paradoxical  in  this  respect, 
that,  on  the  one  hand,  when  the  country  heard  M. 
Thiers'  appeal,  it  sent  him,  to  found  the  Republic,  men 
of  the  Left  party,  whose  advent  hastened  its  fall ;  and 
that,  on  the  other  hand,  by  giving  him  a  successor  less 


MARSHAL    MACMAHON,     DUG    DE    MAGENTA,    AND    SECOND     PRESIDENT 
OF    THE    REPUBLIC. 


[WITBRStTT] 


EARLY   YEARS   OF  THE  REPUBLIC.  35 

attached  to  the  republican  form,  the  monarchists  con- 
tributed to  the  strengthening  of  the  government  whose 
definitive  establishment  they  wished  to  prevent. 

A  slight  disagreement  between  M.  Jules  Simon, 
Minister  of  Public  Education,  and  his  colleagues,  caused 
the  ministry  to  be  recast  at  the  assembling  of  Parlia- 
ment after  the  Easter  holidays.  MM.  Casimir-P^rier 
and  Berenger  entered  the  Council.  This  caused  the 
Right  some  uneasiness,  and  the  battle  began,  under  the 
form  of  obstructive  questions  which  had  already  be- 
come the  custom.  The  Due  de  Broglie  led  the  assault. 
For  the  last  time  M.  Thiers  set  forth  his  policy,  and 
proved  the  necessity  of  the  Republic  which  arose  from 
the  impossibility  of  the  monarchy.  He  rallied  no  one 
to  his  cause,  not  even  from  the  ranks  of  those  who 
were  hesitating  ;  but  he  had,  at  least,-  the  good  fortune 
to  be  able  to  make  his  retreat  with  a  frank,  precise 
speech,  whose  perfect  sagacity  the  future  was  destined 
to  emphasize. 

The  Assembly  rejected  the  order  of  the -day  pure 
and  simple,  1  modestly  asked  for  by  the  ministers, 
and  set  about  demanding  with  a  certain  persistence, 
under  an  indirect  but  pressing  form,  that  resignation 
which  a  few  months  earlier  it  had  refused  to  accept. 
The  letter  came  ;  M.  Thiers  had,  perhaps,  expected  to 
provoke  another  procedure  as  flattering  to  his  self-love 

1  "The  Assembly,"  said  the  order  of  the  day  which  was  moved,  "im- 
pressed by  the  constitutional  projects  which  have  been  presented  in  virtue 
of  one  of  its  decisions,  considers  it  of  importance,  for  the  sake  of  reassur- 
ing the  country,  that  a  resolutely  conservative  policy  shall  prevail  in  the 
government,  and  regrets  that  the  recent  ministerial  modifications  should 
not  have  afforded  to  conservative  interests  the  satisfaction  which  they  had 
a  right  to  expect."  The  order  of  the  day  having  been  rejected  by  a  ma- 
jority of  sixteen  votes,  the  Assembly  announced  that  it  would  sit  in  the 
evening,  and  adjourned,  "  to  await  the  communications  from  the  govern- 
ment." 


36  THE  EVOLUTION  OF  FRANCE. 

as  it  was  useful  to  his  projects ;  but  the  proposal  that 
the  resignation  of  the  head  of  the  State  should  be 
refused  mustered  only  a  respectable  minority.  Then 
the  Left  retired,  leaving  only  392  voters,  and  390 
votes  elected  as  President  of  the  French  Republic 
Marshal  MacMahon,  the  victor  of  Magenta,  the  illus- 
trious soldier  whose  bravery  was  universally  known. 
The  monarchists  did  not  even  suspect  that  they  had 
just  consecrated  the  existence  and  assured  the  working 
of  the  republican  form  of  government. 

For  the  first  time  since  Louis  XVIII.  people  beheld 
the  transmission  of  power  in  France  effected  with  the 
most  complete  calmness,  with  surprising  rapidity,  with- 
out the  slightest  stoppage  or  even  the  slightest  falter- 
ing in  the  governmental  machine.  The  country  had 
grown  too  unaccustomed  to  such  a  spectacle  not  to  appre- 
ciate highly  the  regimen  which  furnished  it.  By  elevat- 
ing to  the  supreme  rank  a  marshal  of  France,  created 
Due  de  Magenta  by  the  Empire  and  well  known  for  his 
severely  conservative  opinions,  the  Right  had  meant  to 
confide  to  him  the  peculiar  mission,  if  not  of  stifling  the 
Republic,  at  least  of  putting  a  stop  to  the  diffusion  of 
republican  ideas  and  doctrines.  Now,  the  mass  of  the 
nation  reasoned  in  quite  a  different  manner,  and,  when 
it  saw  a  loyal  soldier  accept  the  Presidency,  it  concluded 
that  the  Republic  would  incur  no  danger  in  his  hands. ^ 

The  tension  relaxed  in  the  country,  and  there  was  a 
sort  of  movement  of  general  sympathy.     The  electors 

^  In  Europe,  especially  in  the  Courts  of  the  North,  people  pretended 
to  regard  the  election  of  May  21  as  a  new  revolution.  Prussia  did  not 
content  itself  with  a  uotification  from  the  head  of  the  State ;  she  demanded 
fresh  credentials  from  the  French  ambassador.  England,  more  accus- 
tomed to  parliamentary  ways,  raised  no  difficulties,  and  all  Europe  was 
soon  forced  to  recognize  the  fact  that  nothing  was  really  changed  iu 
France. 


EARLY   YEARS  OF  THE  REPUBLIC.  37 

lent  only  an  abstracted  attention  to  the  harangues  of 
their  representatives,  who  boasted,  on  the  Right,  of 
having  brought  France  to  a  halt  on  the  brink  of  an 
abyss,  and  lamented,  on  the  Left,  over  the  sight  of  the 
Republic  in  the  hands  of  the  reactionaries.  For  a 
moment  it  might  have  been  thought  that  a  party  policy 
was  about  to  predominate  in  the  councils  of  the  Presi- 
dent,i  but  these  fears  were  speedily  dissipated,  and  a 
brilliant  reception  was  given,  without  reserve,  to  the 
Shah  of  Persia,  who  reviewed  our  young  army  at  Long- 
champs  at  the  very  moment  when  the  last  Prussian 
soldiers  were  quitting  France  ;  the  joy  of  liberation 
counted  for  a  great  deal  in  the  enthusiasm  with  which 
the  Oriental  monarch  was  received. 

On  September  5,  263,000,000  francs  were  paid,  com- 
pleting, in  capital  and  interest,  the  five  milliards  of 
the  war  levy.  The  Bank  of  France  was  left  with  a 
reserve  in  coin  of  more  than  700,000,000  francs  ;  for  the 
space  of  two  years  the  commercial  world  had  been  pro- 
ceeding from  one  surprise  to  another.  French  elasticity 
surpassed  all  expectations  ;  the  bank-note  had  suffered 
no  depreciation,  and  the  premium  on  gold  remained 
insignificant.2 

In  the  meantime,  a  rather  important  event  had  taken 
place.  On  July  5,  the  Comte  de  Paris,  grandson  of 
King  Louis  Philippe,  and,  consequently,  the  head  of  the 
younger,  or  the  Orleans  branch  of  the  Bourbons,  had 


1  A  rather  tardy  prosecution  was  ordered  against  one  deputy,  M.  Ranc, 
for  his  participation  in  the  Commune,  and  unjustifiable  police  measures 
•were  taken  at  Lyons,  against  civil  burials.  The  marshal  had  summoned 
the  Due  de  Broglie  to  the  Quai  d'Orsay ;  M.  Magnac  to  the  Ministry  of 
Finance ;  M.  Beule  to  the  Ministry  of  the  Interior;  M.  Ernoul  to  that  of 
Justice ;  M.  Batbie  to  that  of  Public  Education. 

2  It  is  just  that  the  honor  of  this  result  should  be  attributed,  in  large 
part,  to  the  preceding  government  and  its  commercial  policy. 


88  THE  EVOLUTION  OF  FRANCE. 

betaken  himself  to  Frohsdorf,  in  Austria,  the  residence 
of  his  cousin,  the  Comte  de  Chambord,  grandson  of 
King  Charles  X.,  the  head  of  the  elder  branch  of  the 
Bourbons,  and,  consequently,  the  sole  legitimate  pre- 
tender to  the  throne  of  France  in  consonance  with  the 
law  of  succession  in  force  under  the  ancient  monarchy. 
Since  the  revolution  of  1830  no  reconciliation  had 
taken  place  between  the  two  branches  of  the  Bourbons; 
but,  as  the  Comte  de  Chambord  was  then  fifty-three 
years  of  age,  had  been  married,  for  many  years,  to  the 
Austrian  Archduchess  d'Este  and  had  no  children,  and 
as  the  elder  branch  was  destined  to  become  extinct  at  his 
death,  the  moment  had  arrived  for  the  Comte  de  Paris, 
who  had  become  the  legitimate  heir,  to  seal  the  recon- 
ciliation. Therefore  the  prince  decided  to  go  and  greet 
his  cousin,  the  only  representative  of  the  monarchical 
principle.  His  uncles,  the  Due  de  Nemours,  the  Prince 
de  Joinville,  and  the  Due  d'Aumale,  approved  of  this 
step.  The  prince  took  it  opportunely,  with  tact  and 
simplicity,  and,  from  the  emotion  which  it  produced  in 
France,  it  was  possible  to  calculate  that  the  chances 
of  restoration  had  doubled  in  four-and-twenty  hours.^ 
The  republicans  were  somewhat  alarmed  by  it :  some 
of  them  recalled  M.  Thiers,  whose  services  they 
had  slighted ;  others,  more  radical,  made  advances 
to  Prince  Napoleon,  whose  anti-clericalism  charmed 
them. 

A  question   came   up,   of   secondary  importance  in 

1  While  M.  Lucien  Brun,  soon  followed  by  MM.  de  Sugny  and  Mer- 
Teilleux  du  Vignaux,  betook  themsehTes  to  Frohsdorf,  the  legitimists 
basied  themselves  in  getting  ready  the  "  King's  equipages."  These  car- 
riages, which  long  remained  unused  in  the  workshop  of  a  carriage-maker, 
were,  at  last,  bought  by  the  Court  of  Greece,  and  came  in  play  at  the 
marriage  of  the  Duke  of  Sparta  to  Princesse  Sophia,  the  sister  of  Will- 
iam II. 


EARLY  TEARS  OF  THE  REPUBLIC.  39 

appearance,  but  its  consequences  were  serious.  The 
flag  of  the  ancient  monarchy,  which  Louis  XVI.  had 
discarded,  under  the  pressure  of  the  revolutionists, 
which  Louis  XVIII.  had  reinstated,  at  his  restoration 
in  1814,  was  the  white  flag  sown  with  golden  lilies. 
Louis  Philippe,  on  the  contrary,  when  he  became  king 
of  France,  in  1830,  adopted  the  tricolored  flag,  blue, 
white,  and  red,  which  had  been  the  flag  of  the  Revo- 
lution and  of  the  Empire.  It  had  not  been  meddled 
with  since  1830.  The  Comte  de  Chambord  was  forced 
to  make  his  choice,  and  his  followers  were  divided  on 
this  question.  People  were  not  slow  to  perceive  that 
they  were  divided  also  on  many  others,  since,  behind 
the  color  of  the  flag,  were  concealed  profound  diver- 
gences of  opinion  and  irreconcilable  antagonisms.  M. 
Chesnelong,  royalist  senator,  had  been  "charged"  by 
the  head  of  the  party  to  confer  on  this  subject  with  the 
Comte  de  Chambord ;  but  he  brought  back  from  his 
long  interviews  with  the  pretender  neither  a  solution 
of  the  difficulty,  nor  even  a  hope  of  solution.  Nothing 
was  either  accepted  or  refused :  the  ambiguous  situa- 
tion remained  in  its  entirety.  It  was  merely  known 
that  the  prince  was  sufficiently  attached  to  his  flag, 
and  had  sufficiently  manifested  his  feeling  to  impart 
to  the  acceptance  of  the  tricolored  flag,  on  his  part,  all 
the  appearance  of  a  concession  made  to  the  Revolution. 
Would  he,  in  his  turn,  decide  that  "  Paris  is,  assuredly, 
worth  a  mass?"  The  whole  question  lay  there;  and 
for  any  one  who  knew  the  rigidity  of  his  principles,  it 
did  not  seem  at  all  likely  that  the  Comte  de  Chambord 
would  yield.  In  fact,  he  announced,  in  a  celebrated 
letter,  that  he  clung  to  the  white  flag,  and  thus  caused 
to  vanish  the  dream  of  restoration  which  his  faithful 
followers  had  conceived. 


40  THE  EVOLUTION  OF  FRANCE. 

A  legend  has  been  formed  on  this  subject.  The 
prince  has  been  represented  as  the  victim  of  the  awk- 
wardness of  his  followers,  as  not  having  been  able, 
of  himself,  to  estimate  the  condition  of  France.  One 
is  at  liberty,  to-day,  to  wonder  whether,  on  the  con- 
trary, he  did  not  perceive,  much  more  clearly  than  his 
partisans,  the  whole  state  of  the  case,  as  often  happens 
with  those  who  look  on  from  afar,  and  from  a  height. 
Whatever  criticisms  may  have  been  deserved  by  his 
programme,  set  forth  in  magnificent  language,  but  in 
very  vague  fashion,  in  his  letters  and  manifestos,  it  is 
impossible  to  mistake  the  fact  that  the  Comte  de  Cham- 
bord  held,  regarding  his  mission,  a  view  which  was,  at 
the  same  time,  both  very  lofty  and  very  just.  He 
wished  to  be  the  king  of  all,  and  preferred  not  to  reign, 
rather  than  to  reign,  like  Charles  X.,  Louis  Philippe, 
and  Napoleon  III.,  over  only  a  fraction  of  the  nation. 
He  divined  that  need  of  harmony,  union,  appeasement, 
which  came  to  light  later  on.  At  no  price  would  he 
have  a  combination,  because  he  felt  very  strongly  that 
the  day  of  combinations  had  passed,  and  that  hence- 
forth nothing  durable  could  be  founded  without  the 
unanimous,  free,  and  well-considered  consent  of  the 
deep  masses  of  the  nation.  This  consent  did  not  exist. 
Perhaps  the  Comte  de  Chambord  cherished  the  hope 
that  it  would  exist  some  day  ;  ^  but  this  illusion  was 
speedily  dissipated.  In  any  case,  France  may  feel 
grateful  to  him  for  not  having  prolonged,  by  a  restora- 
tion which  could  not  have  endured,  the  uncertainties 
and  expedients  of  the  preceding  governments.  When 
he  died,  ten  years  later,  he  carried  with  him  to  the 
tomb  the  respect  of   all  parties  ;  thanks  to  him,  the 

1  His  ulterior  anxiety  seems  to  have  been  to  reserve  the  future ;  he 
repeatedly  requested  his  partisans  not  to  bind  him  by  their  acts. 


EARLY   YEARS   OF  THE  REPUBLIC.  41 

House  of  Bourbon  underwent  none  of  those  adventures 
and  compromises  which,  too  often,  have  marked  the 
decline  and  disappearance  of  great  royal  races. 

At  the  hour  when  the  destiny  of  France  was  being 
thus  debated  between  Salzburg  and  Versailles,  the 
famous  trial  of  Marshal  Bazaine  was  goings  on  at 
Trianon ;  ^  in  the  course  of  one  hearing,  the  defendant, 
by  way  of  exculpation,  argued  that  he  had  acted  in  the 
presence  of  a  void,  since  there  no  longer  existed  any 
government,  either  Empire  or  anything  whatever. 
"  Excuse  me,"  interrupted  the  Due  d'Aumale,  "  France 
remained." 

That  is  precisely  what  good  citizens  thought,  anxious 
not  to  allow  the  country  to  become  the  prey  of  factions. 
In  the  presence  of  a  power  without  a  fixed  duration, 
Bonapartists  and  legitimists  rivalled  each  other  in  their 
zeal  for  working  at  its  enfeeblement.  The  majority 
of  the  Prince  Imperial,  celebrated  at  Chislehurst  on 
March  16,  1874,  and  several  electoral  successes^  which 
they  had  just  won,  emboldened  the  former ;  the  latter 
had  faith  in  Providence  and  declared  that  they  were 
sure  of  the  morrow.     The  confidence  which  the  char- 


^  Marshal  Bazaine  was  accused  of  having  signed,  at  Metz,  a  shameful 
capitulation;  of  having  delivered  over  to  the  enemy  one  of  our  chief 
fortresses,  with  all  the  army  therein,  without  having  even  attempted  to 
exhaust  the  means  of  defence  at  his  disposal.  It  was  evident  that  he  had 
acted  thus,  with  the  view  of  aiding,  later  on,  in  the  re-establishment  of 
the  Empire,  by  hastening  the  advent  of  peace,  and  of  securing  for  himself 
a  brilliant  future  under  the  reign  of  the  son  of  Napoleon  III.  There  was 
no  doubt  as  to  his  treason.  He  was  condemned  to  death,  but  his  penalty 
was  commuted  to  perpetual  imprisonment.  Nevertheless,  after  the  lapse 
of  a  few  years,  he  succeeded  in  making  his  escape,  and  took  refuge  in 
Spain,  where  he  died. 

2  The  year  1874  beheld  the  ranks  of  the  Bonapartists  swelled  by  the 
elections  of  M.  de  Burgoing  in  Nievre,  of  M.  Le  Provost  de  Launay  in 
Calvados,  of  the  Due  de  Mouchy  in  Oise,  of  the  Due  de  Padoue,  who 
received  45,000  votes,  in  Seine-et-Oise. 


42  THE  EVOLUTION  OF  FRANCE. 

acter  of  the  head  of  the  State  inspired  had  given  birth 
to  the  idea  of  "  prolonging  his  power,"  and  the  vote  of 
November  20,  1873,  organized  the  seven  years'  term  of 
the  presidential  office. 

The  situation  was  identical  with  that  under  M. 
tThiers.  The  marshal,  like  his  predecessor,  found 
himself  obliged  to  maintain  the  Republic,  and  to  try- 
to  organize  it;  with  a  perspicuity  and  a  perseverance 
worthy  of  all  praise,  he  never  ceased  to  insist  upon 
this  point.  When,  during  a  visit  to  the  Chamber  of 
Commerce  of  Paris,  he  was  told  of  the  anxieties  of  the 
Parisian  manufacturers  :  "The  National  Assembly,"  he 
said,  "  has  entrusted  to  me  the  power  for  seven  years. 
My  first  duty  is  to  superintend  the  execution  of  this 
sovereign  decision.  Therefore,  have  no  anxiety;  for 
seven  years  I  shall  know  how  to  compel  the  respect 
of  all  for  the  order  of  things  which  has  been  legally 
established."  This  language  the  marshal  refers  to  in 
a  letter,  and  afterwards  in  an  order  of  the  day  to  the 
army,  after  a  review  in  the  Bois  de  Boulogne ;  then 
again,  at  the  approach  of  intermission,  in  a  message 
which  was  very  clear  and  almost  autocratic  in  its  form, 
in  which  he  enjoined  upon  the  Assembly  the  necessity 
of  making  an  end  of  their  quarrels.  In  the  course  of 
a  journey  in  the  West,  he  replied  to  the  President 
of  the  Chamber  of  Commerce  of  Saint-Malo,  in  these 
abrupt  and  significant  words :  "  You  have  just  said 
that  there  is  no  government ;  you  are  mistaken,  there 
is  one ;  my  government. "  A  little  later,  at  Lille,  he 
appeals  "to  the  moderate  men  of  all  parties,"  and 
renews,  in  his  message  at  the  opening  of  the  Assembly, 
the  same  declarations. 

The  marshal's  immovableness  ended  in  imparting  to 
his  ministry  a  little  spirit  of  steadiness  and  stability, 


EARLY   YEARS  OF   THE   REPUBLIC.  43 

in  which  it  seemed  to  be  deficient. ^  The  Vice-Presi- 
dent of  the  Council  2  proclaimed,  in  a  circular  to  the 
prefects,  that  the  seven  years'  term,  like  the  charter 
of  1830  in  earlier  days,  was  henceforth  "a  reality," 
and,  later  on,  accentuating  his  declarations,  he  an- 
nounced to  the  Chamber  that  "free  from  all  engage- 
ments to  any  party  whatever,  it  was  with  the  aid  of 
all  that  he  desired  and  meant  to  govern."  ^  The  Cus- 
todian of  the  Seals,  M.  Depeyre,  ventured  to  remind 
the  Attorney-Generals  that  "  the  powers  of  the  marshal 
and  their  duration"  were  "beyond  all  controversy." 
Such  declarations  scandalized  the  royalists ;  neverthe- 
less, the  name  of  the  Republic  was  always  omitted 
from  them ;  it  seemed  beyond  the  strength  of  the 
ministers  to  employ  it,  and  they  indulged  in  the 
strangest  circumlocutions  for  the  purpose  of  avoiding 
the  necessity  of  writing  or  uttering  it.* 

Their  successors  did  not  put  an  end  to  this  singular 
situation.  When  the  ministry  was  overthrown,  in  the 
month  of  May,  1874,^  and  M.  de  Goulard's  laborious 
negotiations,  with  a  view  of  forming  a  liberal  ministry 
with  the  support  of  the  two  Centres,  had  come  to 
nothing,^  General  de  Cissey  accepted  the  presidency  of 

1  Just  as  the  vote  on  the  seven  years'  term  was  to  be  taken,  it  was 
altered:  it  now  comprised,  together  with  the  Due  de  Broglie,  MM.  the 
Due  Decazes,  de  Fourton,  de  Larcy,  Magne,  and  Depeyre. 

2  The  head  of  the  government,  the  Prime  Minister,  then  bore  only  the 
title  of  Vice-President  of  the  Council,  as  the  Presidency  was  more  really 
exercised  by  the  President  of  the  Republic  then  than  it  is  at  present. 
M.  Dufaure  was  the  first  President  of  the  Council. 

*  Official  Documents  of  the  Republic. 

*  The  Marquis  de  Noailles,  our  ambassador  at  Rome,  ventured  to  men- 
tion the  Republic  in  a  letter  addressed  to  the  electors  of  Bayonne,  and  they 
dared  to  demand  his  recall,  which,  of  course,  the  government  did  not  grant. 

5  By  381  votes  on  the  Left  and  the  Extreme  Right,  against  317. 

8  See  the  details  of  these  negotiations,  which  depict  the  state  of  mind 
of  the  different  groups  in  question,  in  the  Souvenirs  de  la  Preside  nee  du 
MaHchal  de  MacMahon,  by  Ernest  Daudet. 


44  THE  EVOLUTION   OF  FRANCE. 

the  working  Cabinet,  in  which  figured  a  certain  number 
of  members  from  the  preceding  Cabinet,  and  a  few 
newcomers.^  The  marshal,  whose  conviction  had  not 
been  disappointed,  still  waited  for  that  constitution 
the  guardianship  of  which  had  been  entrusted  to  him 
before  its  birth,  and  the  Assembly,  whose  prestige  and 
authority  were  rapidly  waning,  wasted  precious  time 
in  idle  debates.  The  question  of  the  municipal  elective 
franchise  raised  tempests. ^  M.  de  Lacombe  proposed 
the  "  grand  electoral  college  of  1820,"  and  M.  Chesne- 
long  talked  of  the  "notabilities,"  and  of  the  "most 
heavily  taxed,"  to  whom  he  would  have  been  willing 
to  join  the  "delegates"  of  universal  suffrage. 

M.  Casimir-Perier  did  not  succeed  in  his  attempt  to 
extricate  the  Assembly  from  chaos  ;  one  proposition  of 
the  most  unexpected  sort  followed  on  the  heels  of  an- 
other :  restoration  of  the  monarchy,  nomination  of  the 
marshal  to  the  post  of  Lieutenant-General  of  the  king- 
dom, extension  of  the  powers  of  Parliament  for  a  period 
of  seven  years,  separation  of  the  Assembly  into  two 
distinct  Chambers.  The  monarchists  were  beside  them- 
selves over  the  recent  elections  to  the  municipal  council 
of  Paris,  in  which  extreme  democracy,  represented  by 
MM.  Floquet,  Clemenceau,  and  so  forth,  reckoned  fifty 
elected  out  of  eighty.  People  pretended  to  see  every- 
where the  occult  influence  of  M,  Thiers,  and  to  speak 
of  the  marshal  as  a  mere  manager.  In  short,  men 
lived  in  a  sort  of  legal  anarchy  where  the  minorities,  in 
the  interest  of  party,  insisted  in  retaining  a  permanent 
right  of  moral  sedition. ^ 

1 M.  de  Camont,  who  did  not  distinguish  himself  in  the  department  of 
Public  Education,  and  M.  Tailhaud,  who  gave  yent  in  Ardeche  to  the  most 
artlessly  unconstitutional  language. 

2  M.  Jules  Ferry  took  considerable  part  in  this  long  discussion. 

*  Ch.  de  Mazade,  Revue  des  Deux  Mondes.    Chronique. 


EARLY  YEARS   OF  THE  REPUBLIC.  45 

MM.  de  Laboulaye  and  Wallon  offered  two  amend- 
ments ;  the  first,  expressed  as  follows :  "  The  govern- 
ment of  the  Republic  is  composed  of  two  Chambers,  and 
one  President,"  was  rejected  ;  the  second  was  adopted, 
by  the  vote  of  the  majority  :  its  text,  more  precise  than 
that  of  the  first,  differed  from  it  only  by  a  subtle  shade. 
"  The  President  of  the  Republic,"  said  the  Wallon  amend- 
ment, "is  elected  by  the  Senate  and  the  Chamber  of 
Deputies,  joined  together  in  National  Assembly.  He  is 
elected  for  seven  years,  and  is  eligible  for  re-election." 

The  adversaries  of  republican  rule  assumed  to  con- 
sider the  Wallon  amendment  as  having  settled  the 
question  as  to  the  form  of  the  government,  and  they 
took  pleasure  in  repeating  that  the  Republic  had  gone 
into  effect  only  through  the  vote  of  the  majority.  The 
preceding  pages  have  already  done  justice,  in  advance, 
to  such  an  interpretation.^ 

The  birth-pangs  of  the  Constitution  were  painful ; 
men  proceeded  blindly  in  the  midst  of  surprises  and 
contradictions.  The  law  concerning  the  Senate,  ac- 
cepted in  detail,  was  rejected  as  a  whole ;  dissolution 
again  proposed  would  have  been,  at  such  a  moment, 
equivalent  to  a  formal  confession  of  weakness.  It  was 
rejected.  From  the  excess  of  evil  a  reactionary  govern- 
ment was  born  at  last ;  reasonable  and  moderate  men 
recovered  themselves,  and  on  February  25,  1875,  the 
constitutional  laws  were  passed,  not  without  a  combat, 
not  without  a  great  many  amendments,  counter-propo- 
sitions, interruptions,  difficulties. ^    All  expedients  were 

1  Another  fact  which  shows  the  Wallon  amendment  in  its  true  light  is 
that  the  ministry  voted  against  it ;  had  it  been  a  question  of  modifying 
the  existing  order  of  things,  the  most  elementary  tact  would  have  forced 
the  ministers  to  abstain  from  voting. 

2  The  majority  was  181  votes  out  of  689 ;  the  vote  shows  what  majority 
remains  of  the  asserted  establishment  of  the  Republic. 


46  THE  EVOLUTION  OF  FRANCE. 

considered  lawful  to  hamper  or  delay  the  vote.  But 
the  Assembly,  hitherto  so  divided,  suddenly  discovered 
that  it  had  the  strength  to  impose  a  wise  and  moderate 
solution.  The  Left,  with  a  remarkable  sense  of  disci- 
pline, abstained  from  replying  to  the  attacks  of  those 
who  reproached  it,  as  did  M.  de  Castellane,  with  "  be- 
traying universal  suffrage,"  by  giving  as  electoral 
basis  to  the  future  Senate  suffrage  in  two  degrees. 
For  many,  in  fact,  this  was  a  real  sacrifice.  "  It  is 
hard,  nevertheless,"  said  one  of  the  radicals  who  had 
agreed  to  it,  "to  see  our  principles  upheld  by  our 
adversaries  and  opposed  by  ourselves."  ^ 

1  The  terms  Right,  Left,  Centre,  have  always  been  peculiar  to  the 
French  Parliament.  Though  complicated  in  appearance,  their  meaning  is 
very  clear ;  they  form  the  colors  of  the  political  rainbow.  At  the  epoch 
which  we  are  studying,  the  Left  is  made  up  of  republicans,  of  divers 
shades,  but  all  attached  to  the  republican  form  of  government.  The 
Extreme  Left  consists  of  the  radicals  who  derive  their  inspiration,  more  or 
less,  from  the  memories  of  the  Jacobins  of  1793.  In  the  same  way  the 
Right  is  the  camp  of  the  monarchists,  followers  of  the  Bourbons,  the 
Orleans,  or  the  Bonaparte  house,  and  the  Extreme  Right  combines  those 
who  remain  attached  to  the  institutions  of  the  old  form  of  government, 
and  who  would  like  to  see  the  privileges  of  the  nobility  and  the  clergy 
restored  in  the  form  in  which  they  existed  before  the  taking  of  the  Bastille. 
The  Centre  comprises  the  reasonable,  the  moderate  in  views ;  on  the  one 
hand,  those  who,  without  being  wholly  republican,  will  accept  the  Repub- 
lic frankly,  if  they  see  that  such  is  the  wish  of  the  country  (this  is  the 
Left  Centre) ;  on  the  other  hand,  those  who  would  go  as  far  in  the  path 
of  liberal  and  democratic  concessions,  but  who  will  find  it  difficult  to 
renounce  the  monarchical  form  of  government.  Such,  at  the  present 
moment,  is  the  state  of  the  parties;  later  on,  the  classification  will  become 
simplified.  Under  Jules  Ferry,  there  will  remain  only  the  Left,  grouped 
aroimd  the  great  minister,  and  the  Right,  consisting  of  all  those  who 
oppose  him,  all  the  monarchists;  they  will,  falsely,  call  themselves  con- 
servatives, since  far  from  preserving,  they  seek  only  to  destroy  that  which 
exists.  Their  adversaries  will  designate  them  by  a  juster  epithet,  —  the 
reactionaries,  —  which  is  the  one  that  I  shall  employ,  by  preference.  Right, 
Extreme  Right,  Conservatives,  Reactionaries,  Boulangists  later  on,  —  all 
these  are  equivalent  to  designating  by  different  names  one  and  the  same 
category  of  men,  those  who  desire  the  power  of  a  single  man,  and  heredi- 
tary power,  the  monarchy,  in  short,  iu  one  form  or  another.  Later  on,  in 
conclusion,  there  will  be  the  mugwumps,  former  monarchists  converted  to 


EARLY  TEARS  OF  THE   REPUBLIC.  47 

Among  the  wisest  was  Gambetta.  He  reckoned  as 
dear  no  compromise  to  which  he  could  loyally  con- 
sent, if  he  might  but  attain  to  that  goal  which,  at  the 
moment,  dominated  all  others.  As  M.  de  Pressense 
has  very  well  expressed  it,^  it  was  on  that  day  that 
Gambetta  "was  truly  the  second  founder  of  the  Re- 
public. The  victory  which  he  won  over  the  Assembly 
he  had  first  won  over  himself,  by  sacrificing  everything 
in  his  programme  which  could  not  be  immediately 
realized."  When  the  Constitution  was  passed,  a  gov- 
ernment to  apply  it  was  required ;  the  ministerial 
crisis,  by  its  continuance,  threatened  to  compromise 
everything ;  Gambetta  was  not  afraid  to  enter  into 
negotiations  with  M.  Bocher,  President  of  the  Right 
Centre,  to  help  him  in  constructing  a  Cabinet,  since 
M.  Bocher  refused  the  power  himself.^  And,  finally, 
it  was  M.  Gambetta  who  dared  to  explain,  in  an  open 
faubourg  of  Paris,  the  work  which  had  just  been  ac- 
complished, and  boldly  to  assert  his  share  of  the  re- 
sponsibility in  that  work.  He  defined  the  Senate  as 
"the  Grand  Council  of  the  communes  of  France," 
and  made  his  electors  accept  institutions  tainted  by 
a  distinctly  liberal  and  anti-jacobin  character. 

The  Right  Centre  was  not  backward  in  the  matter 

the  Republic  and  to  the  Extreme  Left,  the  Socialists.  The  President,  in 
the  French  Chamber,  sits  facing  the  deputies  or  senators ;  thus  he  has  the 
members  of  the  Right  on  his  left  hand,  and  vice  versa.  What  has  been 
said  concerning  the  Chamber  of  Deputies  may  be  applied  to  the  Senate, 
with  this  difference,  that  the  senators  belong  to  a  more  moderate  average 
of  opinion,  and  do  not  allow  themselves  to  be  so  often  carried  away 
towards  extreme  ideas.  The  Constitution  of  1875  fixes  the  age  for 
entrance  to  the  Senate  at  not  less  than  forty  years. 

1  VarUt^s  Morales  et  Politiques,  by  E.  de  Pressense.  1  volume.  Paris, 
1886. 

2  The  Cabinet  which  was  formed  was  that  of  M.  Buffet,  whose  col- 
leagues were  the  Due  Decazes,  General  Cissey,  Admiral  Montaigne, 
MM.  Caillaux,  Dufaure,  de  Meaux,  Wallon,  and  Leon  Say. 


48  THE  EVOLUTION  OF  FRANCE. 

of  wisdom  ;  it  had  voted,  MM.  de  Broglie,  Decazes,  and 
Audiffret  at  the  head.  The  Due  d'Audiffret-Pasquier, 
elected .  by  a  great  majority  to  the  presidency  of  the 
Assembly,  made  a  speech  there  which  created  a  great 
stir.  In  their  circulars,  MM.  Dufaure  and  de  Cissey 
recommended  respect  for  the  Constitution.  The  sup- 
plementary laws  formed  the  object  of  the  labors  of  a 
parliamentary  committee.  Its  president,  M.  de  La- 
vergne,  analyzed^ the  last  events  in  the  following  terms: 
"  We  have  been  led,"  he  said,  "  by  a  concurrence  of  im- 
perious circumstances,  to  give  a  republican  form  to  the 
government.  All  good  citizens  should  rally  round  it, 
since  the  sovereign  Assembly  has  pronounced  upon  it. 
Let  us  show,  by  the  wisdom  and  firmness  of  our  deci- 
sions, that  we  understand  how  to  conquer  our  divisions 
for  the  sake  of  maintaining  order  and  liberty  at  home, 
as  well  as  for  the  sake  of  preserving  peace  abroad." 
Words  devoid  of  enthusiasm,  but  without  subterfuge, 
which  were  to  be  encountered  sixteen  years  later  on 
the  lips  of  the  "  mugwumps  "  of  1892. 

M.  de  Laboulaye,  who  drew  up  the  report  of  the  sup- 
plementary laws,  did  not  conceal  hoAV  much  they  had 
borrowed  from  the  monarchy.  He  recognized  the  fact 
that  they  were  conferring  upon  the  Republic  "the 
guarantees  of  constitutional  monarchy,  in  the  form  in 
which  we  have  practised  it  for  the  last  thirty  years," 
and  he  added :  "  If  among  the  republicans  there  are 
any  who  think  that  we  should  have  gone  further,  they 
will  do  well  to  consider  that  France,  after  having  passed 
through  the  Empire,  feels  the  need  of  becoming  accus- 
tomed, once  more,  to  a  constitutional  government.  It 
is  a  delicate  task  to  acclimatize  political  liberty  among 
us,  and  one  which  requires  much  prudent  management." 
Such  was  not  the  opinion  of  M.  Louis  Blanc,  who  went 


EABLT  TEARS  OF  THE  REPUBLIC.  49 

about  in  public  assemblies  "proclaiming  the  rights  of 
the  absolute,"  nor  of  M.  Naquet,  who  expressed  to  the 
electors  of  Aries,  Marseilles,  and  Toulon  the  fears  with 
which  the  constitutional  transactions  recently  agreed 
upon  inspired  him. 

General  attention  was  already  ^  concentrated  on  the 
approaching  elections.  Despite  the  intervention  of 
Gambetta,  who  favored  the  election  at  large,  the  elec- 
tion by  district  had  been  established.  In  the  first  place, 
the  Assembly  chose  seventy-five  senators  for  life.  An 
understanding  between  the  Extreme  Right  and  the  Lef  t^ 
discarded  almost  all  the  moderates,  and  favored  the 
republican  candidates.  Then  came  the  turn  of  the 
senators  with  temporary  warrants.  The  proclamations 
addressed  to  the  electors  displayed,  in  general,  a  pru- 
dent liberalism.  MM.  Leon  Say,  Feray,  and  Gilbert- 
Roncher  announced,  in  Seine-et-Oise,  the  following 
programme :  "  Unreserved  adherence  to  the  Constitu- 
tion ;  the  clause  concerning  revision  to  be  regarded  as 
a  door  opened  to  the  improvements  of  the  republican 
government,  and  not  as  a  means  of  overturning  it ;  the 
exertion  of  every  effort  to  preserve  our  country  from 

1  Aside  from  the  debate  upon  the  liberty  of  higher  education,  which 
ended  in  the  institution  of  mixed  juries  for  the  conferring  of  University 
degrees  (see  the  remarkable  speeches  made  by  Jules  Ferry,  on  June  11,  12, 
1875),  the  session  was  verbose  and  empty.  M.  Burgoing's  election  was 
declared  void,  fourteen  months  after  it  had  taken  place;  the  inquiry  had 
revealed  Bonapartist  tricks  of  a  disquieting  character.  Otherwise,  symp- 
toms of  increasing  calmness  were  multiplied  throughout  the  country. 
The  marshal  continued  to  circulate  through  France,  replying  in  familiar 
and  happy  fashion  to  the  speeches  which  were  addressed  to  him.  Cardinal 
Donnet,  Generals  Lebrun  and  Ducrot  uttered  words  of  peace,  and  at 
Arcachon  M.  Thiers  furnished  the  formula  of  the  day :  "  The  Republic  has 
been  decided  upon  "by  vote,"  he  said;  "the  only  thing  now  left  for  us  to 
do  is  to  make  a  success  of  it." 

2  See  the  details  of  the  negotiations  in  regard  to  this  understanding 
in  the  Souvenirs  de  la  Pr^sidence  du  Mar€chal  MacMahon,  by  Ernest 
Daudet. 


50  THE  EVOLUTION  OF  FRANCE. 

any  sort  of  revolution  whatsoever."  The  same  ideas 
were  expressed,  in  Aisne,  by  MM.  Waddington,  Henri 
Martin,  and  de  Saint- Vallier. 

In  opposition  to  this  very  clear  language  was  out- 
lined the  provisional  policy,  agitated  and  nervous,  of 
M.  Buffet.  He  saw  civil  war  ready  to  break  out  at  any 
moment ;  in  his  eyes,  the  insurrectionary  bands  were 
only  waiting  for  a  "  weakening  "  of  the  public  powers. 
Nothing  justified  these  fears ;  General  Chanzy,  Ad- 
miral Pothuau,  MM.  Casimir-Perier,  Laboulaye,  de 
Maleville,  and  L.  de  Lavergne  had  just  been  elected 
senators.  The  amnesty  demanded  by  M.  Naquet  had 
found  adversaries  on  all  sides ;  but  M.  Buffet  did  not 
perceive  these  things.  His  uneasy  temper  was  sud- 
denly exhibited  by  his  categorical  demand  upon  M. 
Leon  Say  that  he  should  disavow  the  senatorial  list 
upon  which  his  name  appeared.  ^  This  rating  brought 
about  an  unforeseen  crisis:  the  Minister  of  Finance 
wished  to  resign,  followed  by  M.  Dufaure.  The  mar- 
shal became  alarmed,  and,  on  this  occasion,  did  not  fear 
to  interfere  directly,  over  the  heads  of  his  ministers ; 
he  exposed  the  policy  of  the  Cabinet  in  a  very  uncon- 
stitutional but  well-written  proclamation,  in  which  he 
declared  that  he  was  the  guardian  of  the  Constitution, 
as  well  as  of  the  conservative  interests.  M.  Leon  Say 
remained. 

The  senatorial  elections  took  place  on  January  30, 
1876.  M.  Buffet  came  to  grief  in  the  Vosges,  his  na- 
tive country ;  forty  Bonapartists  succeeded  in  Gironde, 
Charente-Inf^rieure,  and  Corsica ;  several  radicals  were 
elected   in    the    Bouches-du-Rhone    district,   Var    and 

1  The  Prefect  of  Police,  M.  Leon  Renault,  candidate  for  deputy  in  the 
district  of  Corbeil,  explained  to  his  electors  his  reasons  for  adhering  to  the 
Republic,  and  M.  Buffet  demanded  his  resignation. 


EABLT  TEARS  OF  THE  REPUBLIC.  51 

Drome ;  the  pure  legitimists  were  ousted ;  all  the  rest 
belonged  to  the  moderate  element.  M.  de  Freycinet 
was  the  first  to  be  elected  in  Paris,  where  Victor  Hugo 
was  only  the  fortieth,  in  spite  of  his  grandiloquent  epis- 
tle, "  from  the  delegate  of  Paris  to  the  delegates  of  the 
thirty-six  thousand  communes  of  France."  In  short, 
the  result  of  this  great  national  consultation  was  a 
Senate  whose  composition  assuredly  disconcerted  more 
than  one  calculation,  and  dispelled  more  than  one  illu- 
sion, which  remained,  nevertheless,  "a  tolerably  close 
expression  of  a  complicated  situation,  the  living  repre- 
sentation of  the  serious  and  permanent  currents  of 
public  opinion."  1 

The  electoral  agitation  increased  at  the  approach  of 
the  legislative  elections.  On  this  occasion  Gambetta 
displayed  a  marvellous  and  fruitful  activity  ;  he  spoke 
at  Aries,  at  Lille,  and  everywhere  prepared  the  way  for 
the  triumph  of  his  ideas  by  the  skill  and  the  modera- 
tion with  which  he  defended  them.  The  ballot  of 
February  20  emphasized  and  surpassed  that  of  Janu- 
ary 30,  although  it  did  not  have  throughout  France  the 
character  which  could  have  been  desired  in  the  inter- 
ests of  the  Republic.  In  some  departments,  especially 
in  Paris,  "  a  disproportionate  share  "  was  conceded  "  to 
the  violent  and  exclusive  interests."  ^  Nevertheless,  the 
general  impression  which  resulted  was  "an  impression 
of  peace  and  of  order  in  the  established  government.  "^ 
Gambetta  was  elected  in  Paris,  Lille,  Marseilles,  and 
Bordeaux.  So  were  M.  Thiers  and  M.  Dufaure,  the 
one  at  Paris,  the  other  at  La  Rochelle.  The  Due  De- 
cazes,  opposed  at  Paris  by  the  imperialist  candidate, 

1  Ch.  de  Mazade,  Revue  des  Deux  Mondes.   Cbrooique. 

^Ibid. 

8  Ibid. 


62  THE  EVOLUTION  OF  FRANCE. 

M.  Raoul  Duval,  was  elected  on  the  second  ballot. 
The  elections  of  March  5  put  the  finishing  touch  to 
the  success  of  the  republicans.  The  most  striking 
person  who  suffered  defeat  on  that  day  was  M.  Buffet, 
who  had  taken  so  personal  an  interest  in  the  struggle. 
His  friends  failed  in  the  north  and  in  the  south.  He 
retired,  followed  by  M.  de  Meaux,  and  M.  Dufaure 
came  into  power.  ^ 

On  March  8, 1876,  in  the  Hercules  Hall  at  Versailles, 
the  President  of  the  National  Assembly  announced, 
that,  the  staffs  of  the  Senate  and  of  the  Chamber  of 
Deputies  being  now  formed,  the  powers  of  the  Assembly 
had  come  to  an  end.  M.  Dufaure,  on  assuming  the 
executive  power,  promised,  in  the  name  of  the  marshal, 
that  "  he  would  use  it,  with  the  help  of  God  and  the 
assent  ,of  the  two  Chambers,  only  in  conformity  to  the 
laws,  for  the  honor  and  the  interests  of  our  well-beloved 
country." 

1  His  colleagues  were  the  Due  Decazes,  General  Cissey,  Admiral 
Fourichon,  MM.  Leon  Say,  Waddington,  Teisserenc  de  Bort,  Christophe, 
and  Ricard.  The  latter,  who  died  soon  after,  was  replaced  by  M.  de 
Marc^re. 


THJE  SIXTEENTH  OF  MAT.  53 


CHAPTER   III. 

THE  SIXTEENTH  OF  MAY. 

The  Constitution  of  1875:  Unforeseen  Stability, — The  Beginnings  of  the 
Parliament.  —  Preludes  of  a  Coup  d'Etat. — The  Appeal  to  the  Country, 
and  the  Electoral  Campaign.  —  A  Futile  Attempt.  —  The  Return  to  Nor- 
mal Life.  —  The  Exposition  of  1878.  —  The  Marshal  resigns. 

The  organization  of  the  public  power  in  France  lias 
been  entirely  transformed  eleven  times  since  1789, 
without  reckoning  the  modifications  of  details,  or  the 
simple  changes  of  form,  such  as  the  senatorial  decree 
of  the  Year  XII.  or  the  revision  of  the  charter  of  1814 
in  1830.1 

The  first  National  Assembly  began  by  chopping  down 
all  the  institutions  which  surrounded  the  monarchy, 
and  gave  birth  to  the  Constitution  of  1791  to  replace 
them.  Too  deeply  imbued  with  the  dogma  of  the  separa- 
tion of  powers,  the  members  of  the  Constituent  Assembly 
produced  a  work  characterized  by  distrust  and  isolation  : 
the  ministers,  kept  out  of  Parliament,  the  sovereign, 
hampered  in  the  exercise  of  his  most  elementary  pre- 
rogatives, could  not  govern  alongside  an  assembly  itself 
unique  and  isolated  in  its  powers.  The  Constitution 
of  1791  Avas  condemned  to  death  from  its  very  birth. 
The  Convention  tried  to  substitute  for  it  another  in 
which   the  representative  system  was   reconciled  with 

1  The  constitutions,  properly  speaking,  are  ten  in  number :  those  of 
1791, 1793,  of  the  Year  III.,  of  the  Year  VII.,  of  1814,  the  Additional  Act,  the 
charter  of  1815,  the  constitutions  of  1848,  1852,  1875.  Changes  of  form 
took  place  in  1804  and  in  1830,  and  organic  modifications  were  effected  in 
1793  and  in  1869.    So,  in  all,  there  have  been  fourteen  changes. 


64  THE  EVOLUTION  OF  FRANCE. 

the  direct  exercise  of  the  national  sovereignty.  Con- 
dorcet  presented  the  report  in  February,  1793  ;  but,  in 
the  meantime,  Girondist  ideas  had  ceased  to  please  even 
before  they  had  been  applied,  and  it  was  a  Jacobin  con- 
stitution which  was  proclaimed  on  June  24  of  that  year. 
Popular  ratification  of  the  laws  constituted  its  princi- 
pal original  feature ;  this  shadow  of  a  regular  form  of 
government  soon  disappeared  before  the  revolutionary 
government  established  by  the  decrees  of  October  10 
and  December  10,  and  the  Committee  of  Public  Safety 
remained  alone  invested  with  all  powers. 

The  Constitution  of  the  Year  III.,  which  was  reported 
by  Boissy-d'Anglas,  contained  metaphysical  digressions 
inspired  by  the  Social  Contract.  It  established  two 
councils  of  the  same  origin :  the  Council  of  the  Five 
Hundred,  which  was  to  propose  laws,  and  the  Council 
of  the  Ancients,  which  was  to  discuss  them,  without 
having  the  right  to  amend  them.  The  executive  power 
was  vested  in  the  Directory.  If  nothing  of  the  chi- 
merical projects  of  the  Year  III.  lasted,  it  is  but  just  to 
remark  that  the  great  organic  laws  which  were  passed 
at  this  same  epoch  still  serve,  to-day,  as  the  foundation 
of  our  administration. 

In  the  Year  VII.  Sieyes  reappeared  with  a  whole 
hierarchy  agreeable  to  the  eye,  running  from  the  "  lists 
of  notabilities "  drawn  up  by  the  electors,  and  from 
which  the  functionaries  were  to  be  chosen,  to  the  Grand 
Elector,  a  magistrate  without  authority,  who  was  to 
preside  over  the  proper  working  of  the  Constitution. 
Bonaparte  accepted  the  lists  of  notabilities,  which  he 
regarded  as  inoffensive,  but  replaced  the  Grand  Elector 
by  the  First  Consul,  of  whom  the  Senatorial  Decree  of 
the  Year  XII.  made  a  hereditary  emperor. 

Then  came  a  long   period  of  parliamentarism  :    the 


THE  SIXTEENTH   OF  MAY.  55 

charter  of  1814,  replaced  during  the  Hundred  Days 
by  the  Additional  Act,  was  re-established  in  the  follow- 
ing year  ;  in  1830  it  underwent  several  modifications  of 
slight  importance,  and  then  lasted  into  1848.  Then 
bombastic  preambles,  grand  principles,  hollow  generali- 
ties, which  had  charmed  the  legislators  of  the  end  of 
the  preceding  century,  made  their  appearance  again. 
The  Constitution  of  1848,  drawn  up  by  Marrast,  Du- 
faure,  Dupin  the  elder,  Tocqueville,  Odilon  Barrot, 
Consid^rant,  Vaulabelle,  Lamennais,  was  promulgated 
on  November  7,  "in  the  presence  of  God,  and  in  the 
name  of  the  people."  It  was  stated  that  "the  French 
Republic  was  one,  democratic  and  indivisible  "  ;  that  it 
had  as  its  foundations  "  family,  labor,  property  "  ;  that 
it  "recognized  rights  anterior  and  superior  to  the 
positive  laws,"  — all  things  excellent  in  themselves,  but 
rather  silly. 

The  Constitution  of  1852  was,  above  all  else,  anti- 
parliamentary,  and  directed  against  the  Assembly, 
which  was  reduced,  under  the  name  of  "legislative 
body,"  to  the  most  modest  and  insignificant  sort  of  a 
part.  It  lasted  eight  years.  As  early  as  1860  the  Em- 
peror was  led  to  grant  publicity  to  the  debates,  and  the 
right  to  vote  an  address  in  reply  to  the  speech  from  the 
throne;  two  Ministers  without  functions  represented 
the  government  with  the  deputies.  A  great  uprising 
of  public  opinion  having  made  itself  felt  in  the  elections 
of  1863,  the  right  of  the  question  (^interpellation')^  and 
the  presence  of  the  ministers  in  the  legislative  body 
were  conceded  (January,  1867).  And,  finally,  the  Sen- 
atorial Decree  of  September  8,  1869,  established  true 
ministerial  responsibility  and  voting  upon  the  budget 
by  sections.  Hence  the  government  which  ratified  the 
appeal  to  the  nation  of  May  8,  1870,  resembled  that  of 


66  THE  EVOLUTION   OF  FRANCE. 

1830.  Universal  suffrage  and  the  responsibility  — 
wholly  fictitious,  by  the  way  —  of  the  sovereign  consti- 
tuted the  only  differences.  But  there  was  not  time  to 
try  the  experiment,  and  the  liberal  Empire  succumbed 
at  Sedan,  together  with  the  absolute  Empire. 

While  passing  in  review,  as  rapidly  as  possible,  this 
collection  of  constitutional  texts,  it  is  impossible  not  to 
be  struck  by  the  fact  that,  out  of  four  hundred  years  of 
our  national  existence,^  the  two  parliamentary  constitu- 
tions (that  of  1814-1830,  and  that  of  1875)  lasted  fifty- 
four  years,  while  the  other  eight  constitutions  lasted,  in 
all,  fifty  years ;  that  is  to  say,  their  average  duration 
was  a  little  more  than  six  years.  Never  have  the 
merits  of  a  parliamentary  form  of  government  been 
emphasized  in  history  in  a  more  clear  and  indisputable 
manner  than  by  this  fact.  While  fairly  illogical  in 
itself,  the  parliamentary  form  was  better  suited  than 
any  other  to  a  century  of  transition,  and  it  alone  was 
able  to  guide  Europe,  and  France  in  particular,  from 
the  monarchy  by  right  divine,  to  pure  democracy.  This 
impression  is  still  further  accentuated  if  one  compares 
the  texts  of  the  constitutions  which  have  just  been 
enumerated.  The  greater  part  of  them,  hastily  pre- 
pared to  meet  the  needs  of  a  cause  or  of  a  man,  bear 
the  imprint  of  the  most  complete  governmental  inex- 
perience. Great  periods  with  swelling  phrases,  ingen- 
ious or  learned  combinations,  do  not  take  the  place  of 
the  knowledge  of  men  and  the  exact  idea  of  the  needs 
of  the  epoch.  It  is  in  this  point,  in  particular,  that  the 
Constitution  of  1875  differs  so  completely  from  those 
which  preceded  it. 

Instead  of  forming  a  compact  work,  single,  elaborated, 
and  accepted  at  a  dash,  it  is,  in  a  way,  dispersed  into 

1  These  lines  were  written  in  1895. 


THE  SIXTEENTH  OF  MAY.  57 

three  constitutional  laws  distinct  from  each  other.  We 
have  seen,  moreover,  in  what  a  practical  spirit  it  was 
drawn  up  and  how  its  character  of  compromise  per- 
mitted its  joint-authors,  who  held  very  diverse  opinions, 
to  unite  in  preparing  it. 

At  its  foundation  is  established  a  very  broad  electoral 
system,  since  to  the  qualification  of  French  citizenship 
it  suifices,  for  electoral  rights,  to  add  the  age  of  twenty- 
five  years,  and  a  residence  in  one  commune  of  one  year 
and  six  months.  Thus  the  electoral  question,  which 
is  so  troublesome  in  other  countries,  has  been  settled ;  it 
is  impossible  to  go  further  unless  suffrage  be  granted 
to  women,  which  public  opinion  does  not  seem  disposed 
to  claim  very  soon.  The  Chamber  is  entirely  renewed 
every  four  years.  It  is  probable  that  the  mode  of  elec- 
tion will  undergo  still  further  transformations,  since 
the  quarrel  between  the  general  election  and  the  district 
election  has  lasted  since  1817.  As  for  the  party  plat- 
form (mandat  imp^ratif),  that  ulcer  of  parliamentary 
life,  "  the  strong  organization  of  parties  and  the  eleva- 
tion of  political  customs  "  ^  are  the  only  safeguards  which 
can  be  set  up  against  it.^ 

In  the  beginning,  men  had  dreamed  of  considerable  pre- 
rogatives for  the  Senate ;  on  the  contrary,  in  practice, 
its  part  has  been  circumscribed  in  a  greatly  curtailed 
manner  ;  so  curtailed,  in  fact,  that  some  politicians  per- 
mitted themselves  to  be  induced  to  regard  it  as  a  use- 
less piece  of  machinery.  Later  on,  circumstances  proved 
the  nature  of  its  utility.     In  fact,  it  was  to  be  feared 

1  A.  Ribot,  Cows  fait  a  I'^cole  des  Sciences  Politiques  (unpublished). 

2  The  mandat  impiratif  (party  platform) ,  which  played  a  prominent 
part  in  the  elections  of  1881,  is  simply  the  instructions  given  to  the  deputy 
by  his  constituents  to  vote  in  such  or  such  a  way,  and  the  obligation 
accepted  by  the  deputy  to  make  his  vote  conform  to  the  requirements  of 
his  constituents. 


58  THE  EVOLUTION  OF  FRANCE. 

that  the  Senate,  also,  would  try  to  overthrow  ministries, 
and  to  demand  that  ministers  should  be  held  to  equal 
responsibility  before  both  Chambers.  This  was  a  serious 
danger ;  it  was  only  perceived  after  it  had  been  averted. 
It  appeared,  in  principle,  as  if  irremovability  ought  to 
constitute  a  rampart  against  thoughtless  impulses  ;  it 
was  nothing  of  the  sort,  and  eventually  it  was  found 
possible  to  discard  it  without  regret.  On  the  other 
hand,  the  elective  franchise,  ingeniously  combined  in 
such  a  manner  as  to  make  all  the  municipal  communes 
of  the  country  take  a  share  in  designating  the  senators, 
has  given  the  results  which  were  expected  from  it. 
But  partial  renewal  and  the  longer  term  of  office  have 
contributed,  even  more  than  its  diversity  of  origin,  to 
make  of  the  Senate  an  Assembly  entirely  distinct  from 
the  Chamber,  and  thoroughly  in  harmony  with  the  part 
which  events  were  destined  to  assign  to  it. 

The  President  is  irresponsible,  and  it  is  the  National 
Assembly  which  elects  him  for  seven  years ;  he  did  not 
seem  very  well  armed  against  the  exactions  and  arbitra- 
riness of  Parliament  except  through  his  right  to  force 
a  fresh  consideration  of  laws  which  had  been  passed  ; 
and  even  this  privilege  remained  unused,  and  certain 
deputies  were,  perhaps,  ignorant  of  its  existence.  The 
right  of  dissolution  is  exercised  by  the  President,  in 
company  with  the  upper  Chamber.  The  head  of  the 
State  communicates  with  the  senators  and  the  deputies 
through  the  medium  of  messages,  and  presides  over  the 
Council  of  Ministers. 

The  ministers  may  be  more  or  less  numerous;  the 
Constitution  does  not  fix  their  number ;  it  confines 
itself  to  declaring  that  they  are  responsible ;  they  are 
so,  individually  for  their  own  administration,  and  collec- 
tively for  their  policy.     Such,  very  briefly  summed  up, 


THE  SIXTEENTH  OF  MAY.  59 

are  the  institutions  which  the  National  Assembly  of  1875 
gave  to  the  country  after  four  years  of  waiting,  and 
without  any  enthusiasm  whatever.  No  one  seemed  to 
believe  in  their  durability.  "  We  certainly  have  occasion- 
ally seen  statesmen  promise  perpetuity  to  their  political 
creations,"  said  M.  de  Mazade  wittily  ;  "  but  M.  Buffet 
is  the  first  to  begin  putting  ashes  on  the  brow  of  the 
constitution  which  he  has  helped  to  make,  by  reminding  it 
of  its  fragility,  and  of  the  probable  briefness  of  its  exist- 
ence." ^  On  the  Left,  also,  men  felt  anxious.  While 
calling  attention  to  the  fact  that "  difhculties  and  crises 
are  the  living  woof  of  free  governments,"  Jules  Ferry 
said,  with  a  certain  melancholy  :  "  Nothing  is  quickly 
done,  nothing  goes  by  steam  in  the  working  of  a  govern- 
ment of  three  powers.  It  is  the  slowest  of  all  motors ; 
it  requires  much  time  and  many  efforts  to  work  and  to 
produce.  The  rapid  processes  of  which  modern  mechan- 
ism boasts  are  not  its  portion  ;  it  is  a  government  which 
earns  its  daily  bread,  but  in  the  sweat  of  its  brow."^ 
At  least  every  one  felt  the  necessity  of  making  these 
institutions  live.  "The  Constitution  of  1875,"  wrote 
Jules  Favre,^  "  is  far  from  being  perfect ;  its  scrupulous 
maintenance  is,  nevertheless,  one  condition  of  public 
safety.  Not  to  permit  any  one  to  touch  it,  not  to  touch 
it  oneself,  are  two  correlative  rules  of  conduct  drawn 
from  the  same  principles  :  the  necessity  of  stable  institu- 
tions, and  the  duty  of  protecting  them  by  their  own  force 
against  all  attacks.  When  this  great  and  salutary  example 
shall  have  been  given,  we  shall  have  taken  another  step 
along  the  path  wherein  free  governments  hold  them- 
selves erect.     England  preceded  us  long  ago  in  that 

1  Ch.  de  Mazade,  Revue  des  Deux  Mondes.    Chroniqae. 

2  Letter  to  the  journal,  La  Oironde,  June  10,  1876. 
8  Conferences  et  Melanges. 


60  THE  EVOLUTION   OF  FRANCE. 

path;  she  has  found  therein  repose,  honor,  and  pros- 
perity.    Let  us  strive  to  imitate  her  wisdom." 

Never  did  gloomy  prognostications  receive  from  time 
and  circumstances  a  more  absolute  refutal.  Conflicts 
between  the  head  of  the  State  and  Parliament  might 
have  been  apprehended ;  the  more  so  as  M.  Thiers  had 
—  under  very  peculiar  circumstances,  it  is  true  —  im- 
parted a  dangerous  course  to  the  institution  of  the 
Presidency.  Marshal  MacMahon  was  almost  constitu- 
tional ;  M.  Gr^vy  was  completely  so,  and  every  distrust 
was  extinguished,  so  far  as  the  Elys^e  was  concerned. 
As  for  the  Council  of  Ministers,  it  was,  by  its  very  in- 
stability, the  safety-anchor  of  the  new  order  of  things. 
There  exists  in  the  French  temperament  one  serious 
defect  which  brings  in  its  train  a  whole  cohort  of  un- 
pleasant consequences.  Public  opinion,  with  us,  has 
a  mania  for  responsibility.  Under  the  impulse  of  any 
emotion  whatever,  or  of  any  unforeseen  event,  public 
opinion  always  attacks  some  one,  and  is  only  appeased 
after  having  executed  its  victim  —  even  if  he  be  an 
innocent  man.  It  resembles  those  men  of  irascible 
temper,  who,  in  order  to  conquer  their  rage,  smash  a 
piece  of  furniture,  and  immediately  regain  calmness 
and  lucidity.  When  a  people  has  such  dangerous 
habits,  only  a  ministry  can  be  offered  to  it  to  over- 
throw. For  if  it  has  a  responsible  head  of  the  State, 
and  attacks  him,  it  becomes  a  revolution. 

A  number  of  ministerial  crises  which  occurred  under 
the  rule  of  1875  spared  us  revolutions :  the  causes 
which  brought  them  about  were  often  trivial,  but  a 
public  opinion  which  is  not  master  of  itself  cannot  be 
reasoned  with,  and  these  crises  played  the  beneficent 
part  of  a  safety-valve.  On  the  other  hand,  it  is  not 
quite  correct  to  say  that  they  disorganized  the  admin- 


JULES    GR^VY,    THIRD    PRESIDENT    OF    THE    REPUBLIC. 


"V      OT  TBI     M^ 

[UII7BESIT71 


THE  SIXTEENTH    OF  MAY.  61 

istration ;  that  may  have  been  the  case  in  the  begin- 
ning, but  the  mischief  was  soon  repaired.  In  the 
majority  of  the  ministries,  the  minister,  beyond  his 
political  part  as  member  of  the  government,  does  not 
do  much  more  than  peep  into  the  portfolio  of  which  he 
is  the  nominal  custodian.  Directors  and  heads  of  of- 
fices, who  enjoy  stability  and  authority,  accomplish  an 
identical  task  and  in  the  same  spirit  under  a  different 
chief.  This  explains  how  it  has  been  possible  to  under- 
take great  reforms,  and  carry  them  to  a  successful  end, 
slowly  and  steadily.  ^ 

In  this  practical  application  of  the  Republic,  every- 
thing was  unforeseen  and  paradoxical.  An  Assembly 
with  monarchical  origins  and  tendencies  founded  the 
Republic ;  a  constitution  whose  provisional  character 
was  proclaimed  by  the  very  persons  who  had  drawn  it 
up  has  surpassed,  in  its  duration,  all  the  "  definitive  " 
constitutions  to  which  it  succeeded.  The  conflicts 
between  the  two  Chambers  and  the  Presidency,  which 
seemed  probable,  did  not  take  place,  and  harmony  was 
established  between  the  three  powers,  each  of  which 
assumed  a  different  character.  An  uneasy  turbulent 
public  opinon  has,  at  last,  found  in  ministerial  respon- 
sibility the  safety-valve  which  it  needed,  and  under 
the  external  appearance  of  instability,  a  remarkably 
stable  form  of  government  has  been  established,  and 
has  flourished. 

In  1876  the  first  efforts  of  the  new  Chamber,  pre- 
sided over  by  M.  Jules  Grevy,  and  of  the  new  Senate, 
which  had  called  the  Due  d'Audiffret-Pasquier  to  the 
chair,  did   not   presage  any  such   happy  results.     No 

1  This  state  of  things  appears  in  a  fair  way  to  be  modified  in  the  direc- 
tion of  a  more  personal  action  of  the  minister  in  the  business  of  his 
department. 


62  THE  EVOLUTION   OF  FRANCE. 

tradition  had  been  outlined,  as  yet ;  discipline  was 
lacking  in  the  parliamentary  groups.  Experience,  also, 
was  lacking  and  good- will  did  not  supply  its  absence. 
This  good-will  was  expressed  by  the  multiplicity  of 
propositions  due  to  the  initiative  of  the  deputies.  The 
Chamber  of  1876  came  together  with  an  inexhaustible 
supply  of  projects  in  stock.  Military  organization, 
administration,  magistracy,  education,  religion,  rail- 
ways, government  of  property,  —  each  man  had  his  own 
improvements  to  propose  on  each  subject. 

"  There  is  not  a  day,"  says  M.  de  Mazade,  "  that  M. 
President  Grevy,  a  man  full  of  patience,  does  not  have 
to  register  in  its  proper  place  some  new  production  of 
parliamentary  measures,  and  a  convenient  device  has 
been  hit  upon  to  reconcile  all  interests,  to  eliminate  the 
element  of  self-love  in  the  authors  of  the  propositions 
without  binding  oneself  to  anything :  it  is,  to  take 
them  into  consideration.  At  the  present  moment, 
there  are  more  than  eighty  committees  occupied  in  ex- 
amining a  faiultitude  of  motions."  ^  Nevertheless,  the 
Chamber  was  sufficiently  ministerial.  The  majority 
did  not  have  to  be  "sought"  ;  it  "offered  itself,"  in  a 
manner.  "The  aptitude  for  government  carried  the 
day  in  proportions  truly  unexpected  "  ^  in  the  republi- 
can ranks.  A  proof  of  this  presented  itself  when  the 
question  as  to  the  election  of  mayors  again  came  under 
discussion.  The  republicans,  on  the  report  of  Jules 
Ferry,  accepted  a  compromise,  with  the  sole  object  of 
not  impeding  the  movements  of  the  ministry. ^     Cer- 

1  Ch.  de  Mazade,  Revue  des  Deux  Mondes.    Chronique. 

2  Jules  Ferry,  Discoxirs  et  Opinions. 

8  It  was  a  question  of  abrogating  the  law  of  January  20,  1874,  and  of 
returning  to  the  law  of  1871,  which  did  not  reserve  to  the  central  power 
the  right  to  appoint  mayors  except  in  cities  of  more  than  twenty  thousand 
inhabitants,  and  in  the  capitals  of  districts.    As  the  government  had  ira- 


THE  SIXTEENTH  OF  MAY.  63 

tain  advanced  groups  had  come  to  an  understanding 
with  the  Extreme  Right  to  perpetuate  the  confusion, 
prejudices,  and  the  eternal  and  useless  quarrels  of 
parties.  The  Republic  of  all  the  rest  of  the  world 
certainly  was  not  theirs ;  but  while  M.  Tirard  de- 
manded the  suppression  of  the  embassy  to  the  Holy 
See,  and  MM.  Clemenceau  and  Raspail,  upholding  the 
proposal  of  amnesty,  declared  that  the  "  Versaillese " 
themselves  were  in  need  of  amnesty,  M.  Gambetta, 
who  had  become  president  of  the  committee  on  the 
budget,  brought  to  the  cause  of  order  his  vibrating 
eloquence,  and  did  not  fear,  in  the  heart  of  Belleville, 
to  describe  the  Commune  as  "  a  criminal  insurrection."  ^ 
Nothing  in  the  internal  condition  of  the  country 
justified  the  sort  of  anguish,  of  wild  perturbation,  which 
the  conservatives  felt  in  presence  of  the  republicans ; 
nothing  unless  it  were  their  profound  ignorance  of  their 
ambitions  and  their  plans.  At  no  time  has  a  more  pro- 
found and  less  well-founded  divergence  of  sentiments 
between  the  two  parties  been  seen.  The  repugnance 
which  the  marshal  had  felt  in  confiding  the  power  to 
M.  Jules  Simon,^  the  deputies  felt,  in  their  turn,  in  try- 


prudently  boimd  itself  on  this  question,  a  compromise  was  the  result :  the 
central  power  had  the  right  to  nominate  in  the  capitals  of  the  depart- 
ments, of  the  districts,  and  of  the  counties. 

1  It  is  but  just  to  add,  that  with  this  disposition  displayed  by  the  great 
tribune  not  to  make  his  words  and  his  acts  harmonize  together  any  too  well, 
he  proposed,  at  the  same  time,  the  abandonment  of  the  trials  for  deeds  con- 
nected with  the  Commune.  The  Chamber  accepted  this  measure,  with 
modifications ;  the  Senate  rejected  it,  and  this  was  the  cause  which  occa- 
sioned the  fall  of  the  Dufaure  Cabinet. 

2  The  question  in  point  was,  to  ascertain  whether  the  Constitution 
authorized  the  Senate  to  reinstate  the  appropriations  which  the  Chamber 
had  vetoed.  "  The  fact  is,"  says  M.  Ribot  (Cours  fait  u  I'Ecole  des  Scie7ices 
Politiques,  unpublished),  "  that  in  nearly  all  countries  the  upper  Chambers 
never  raise  the  question  of  the  budget :  this  is  the  established  usage.  If 
the  lords  have  made  a  timid  and  accidental  attempt  to  act  against  this 


64  TEE  EVOLUTION   OF  FRANCE. 

ing  to  follow  the  new  chief  of  the  Cabinet,  even  when 
the  latter  defended  their  dearest  principles.  M.  Jules 
Simon  was,  assuredly,  more  truly  a  conservative  than  any 
one  of  those  who  adorned  themselves  with  that  title  and 
refused  him  their  votes.  He  gave  proofs  of  it  every  day. 
On  the  Left,  they  demanded  that  functionaries  hostile 
to  the  form  of  government  should  be  weeded  out.  There 
had  been  veritable  scandals  in  several  departments,  and 
this  weeding-out  was  indispensable,  but  an  effort  was 
made  to  make  it  too  complete.  Jules  Simon  energeti- 
cally resisted.  "  If  I  were  to  listen  to  you,"  he  said  to 
the  advanced  republicans,  "  I  should  introduce  into 
French  customs  that  American  rotation  in  office  which 
is  cause  of  so  many  evils."  A  conflict  over  the  annual 
appropriation  having  arisen  between  the  Chamber  and 
the  Senate,  the  Minister  defended  the  rights  of  the 
upper  House.  It  was  impossible  to  set  his  acts  in  con- 
tradiction to  the  words  which  he  had  uttered  on  coming 
into  power.  He  had  declared  that  "  he  was  profoundly 
republican,  and  profoundly  conservative."  No  one 
could  cherish  ill-will  against  him  for  being  conserva- 
tive, nor  feel  uneasy  because  he  was  a  republican.  The 
chances  of  a  monarchical  restoration  had  retreated  so 
greatly  during  the  preceding  four  years,  that  with  the 
exception  of  a  few  enthusiasts  no  one  any  longer 
dreamed  of  calling  the  form  of  government  into  ques- 
tion ;  the  urgent  agreed  to  wait,  at  least,  until  the  end 
of  the  seven  years'  term. 

castom,  they  were  unable  to  succeed  in  it,  and  the  reform  was  not  effected. 
In  France,  the  peers  have  never  done  more  than  docilely  record  the 
annual  appropriation."  Gambetta  maintained,  that  in  the  case  in  ques- 
tion, the  maximum  was  fixed  by  the  deputies ;  the  senators  could  diminish, 
but  could  not  augment  the  items  set  down  in  the  budget.  This  arrange- 
ment was  founded  upon  a  subtle  interpretation  of  the  text  of  the  constitu- 
tional law. 


THE  SIXTEENTH   OF  MAT.  65 

No  !  the  conflict  whose  preludes  were  beginning  to 
enervate  public  opinion  had  other  causes.  For  a  long 
time  it  was  thought  that  the  Marshal  President,  shar- 
ing the  uneasiness  of  the  persons  about  him,  had  enter- 
tained the  very  singular  and  very  widely  disseminated 
idea,  that  the  liberal  ladder  led,  inevitably,  to  the  abyss 
of  anarchy,  and  that  on  its  slippery  steps  no  republican, 
not  even  the  best-intentioned,  would  be  able  to  stop  the 
country ;  that,  imbued  with  this  conviction,  he  had  re- 
solved to  apply  the  brake,  so  to  speak,  to  the  forward 
march  of  public  opinion,  but  that,  through  lack  of  deci- 
sion and  of  self-confidence,  he  had  not  carried  out  his 
plan,  and  had  allowed  himself  to  be  vanquished  by 
more  resolute  adversaries.  But  there  is  one  point 
which  rises  above  everything  else,  and  upon  which  it 
is  impossible  to  be  mistaken,  now  that  the  true  charac- 
ter of  the  crisis  of  the  16th  of  May  has  become  clearly 
apparent.  It  was  not  a  political,  but  an  essentially 
religious  crisis. 

After  Pius  IX.,  crowning  the  work  of  his  long  pon- 
tificate, had  offered  to  the  world  "  an  intellectual  Csesar- 
ism,  as  the  only  remedy,  as  the  solution  vainly  and  long 
pursued  in  the  disorder  of  all  things,"  ^  in  France  a  new 
Catholicism  was  beheld,  — no  longer  the  same  which  our 
fathers  had  known  and  loved,  —  marching,  on  all  sides, 
to  the  assault  of  modern  society ;  it  had  assumed  pre- 
cise form  in  the  gloomy  days  of  1870.  Feeble  or 
terrified  minds  had  accepted  with  ecstasy  its  consoling 
visions  and  its  surprising  prophecies  ;  new  devotions 
had  arisen;  a  strange  idolatry  formed  its  foundation. 
As  formerly,  in  Phrygia,  under  Marcus  Aurelius,  tlie 
expectation  of  some  mystical  renovation  hypnotized 
souls  ;    scenes  of   illuminism  and  of   ecstasy  occurred 

1  Jules  Ferry,  Speech  delivered  on  June  3,  1876. 


66  THE  EVOLUTION  OF  FRANCE. 

every  moment.  "  Innumerable  little  books  spread  wild 
ideas  everywhere ;  the  good  people  who  read  them 
thought  them  more  beautiful  than  the  Bible."  ^  When 
calm  was  restored  after  the  war,  a  number  of  sanctua- 
ries, previously  unknown,  threw  open  their  doors  to 
the  faithful.  The  clergy  maintained  an  attitude  of 
reserve.  Strange  to  say,  it  was  the  laity  who  had  led 
the  movement,  organized  the  pilgrimages,  disseminated 
the  Gospel.  They  seemed  desirous  of  confiscating 
religion,  and  of  making  it  their  own  private  property. 
Their  headquarters  were  at  the  Monastery  of  Paray- 
le-Monial ;  they  dragged  thither  the  deputies,  and  were 
angry  because  the  Due  de  Broglie  and  M.  Beule  did 
not  go  there  to  make  their  devotions.  M.  du  Temple 
and  M.  de  Belcastel  played  in  the  Assembly  the  part 
of  lay  bishops  ;  they  did  their  utmost  to  get  passed  the 
law  asserting  the  public  utility  of  the  constructiofl 
of  the  basilica  of  Montmartre,  and  there  came  near 
being  a  solemn  vote  "  consecrating  repentant  France  to 
the  Sacred  Heart  of  Jesus."  No  doubt,  more  than  one 
good  Christian  was  sad  over  these  exaggerations,  as  he 
thought  of  the  reaction  which  they  must,  of  necessity, 
entail. 

It  soon  came,  in  fact,  and  there  was  a  "disastrous 
emulation  between  the  clerical  spirit  and  the  radical 
spirit. "  2  Both  have  their  pontiffs  and  their  trusty  fol- 
lowers ;  the  radical  religion  believes  that  it  has  received, 
since  1793,  the  gift  of  miracles  and  the  gift  of  tongues. 

Clericalism,  unjustly  so  called,  since  laymen  have  had 
more  to  do  with  it  than  the  priests,  has  quartered  itself, 
in  succession,  on  two  fields  of  battle,  both  badly  chosen, 
—  the  temporal  power  of  the  Pope,  and  national  educa- 

1  Renan,  Marc-Aurile  et  la  Fin  du  Monde  Romain. 

2  Ch.  de  Mazade,  Revue  des  Deux  Mondes.    Chronique. 


THE  SIXTEENTH   OF  MAT.  67 

tion.  From  1872  to  1887,  the  claims  made  in  favor  of  the 
temporal  power  were  incessant.  They  were  multiplied, 
without  anj'-  account  being  taken  of  the  difficult  cir- 
cumstances in  which  we  found  ourselves,  or  the  most 
elementary  signs  of  common  sense.  Petitions  were 
circulated,  even  in  the  primary  schools,  and  some  were 
couched  in  terms  offensive  to  the  government  of  King 
Victor  Emmanuel.  Prelates,  carried  away  by  their 
zeal,  made  this  question  the  theme  of  their  pastoral 
charges,  and  the  Bishop  of  Nevers  went  so  far  as  to 
organize  in  his  diocese  a  manifestation  against  a  law 
which  the  Italian  Parliament  had  just  passed,  and  to 
propose  to  the  mayors  in  his  diocese  that  they  should 
take  part  in  it.  It  seemed  as  if  clericalism  were,  above 
and  outside  of  all  law.  With  every  passing  day  its 
freaks  in  the  direction  of  agitation  became  more  dis- 
turbing to  the  future  of  the  country  and  to  its  good 
name  abroad. 

At  last  the  storm  broke;  a  question  was  raised  in 
the  Chamber  concerning  the  "  ultra-montane  intrigues." 
On  that  day  Gambetta  gave  way  to  violence ;  while 
protesting  that  he  had  no  intention  of  attacking  the 
Concordat,  he  depicted  the  episcopal  body  in  rebellion 
against  the  government,  and  denounced  it  to  public 
opinion  in  these  celebrated  words  :  "  Clericalism  —  that 
is  our  enemy  !  "  This  phrase  exercised  a  great  and  in- 
jurious weight  over  a  whole  epoch.  Clerical  politics 
and  religion  are  two  very  different  things ;  he  was 
just  in  not  confounding  them,  and  combating  the  one 
without  attacking  the  other ;  he  was  even  clever  in 
protecting  himself  from  the  one  by  the  other.  The 
French  clergy  likes  to  be  on  the  side  of  the  govern- 
ment; it  might  have  been  won,  by  treating  it  well, 
and  by  not  forcing  it  to  bear  the  blame  of  the  excesses 


68  THE  EVOLUTION  OF  FRANCE. 

committed  by  the  laity.  The  opposition,  by  the  same 
stroke  of  policy,  might  have  been  deprived  of  one  of 
its  most  formidable  weapons ;  it  is  the  religious  ques- 
tion which  has  permitted  the  monarchical  parties  to  last 
so  long. 

The  reply  of  M.  Jules  Simon  to  the  question  was 
such  as  moderation  and  reason  dictated;  it  was  evi- 
dent that  the  government  represented  the  opinion  of 
the  country  on  that  grave  subject.^  Nevertheless,  the 
debate  ended  in  a  very  unsatisfactory  manner.  The 
order  of  the  day,  which  was  passed  without  reaching 
the  Cabinet,  was  not  of  a  nature  to  facilitate  his  task. 
This  took  place  on  May  4.  Twelve  days  passed,  in  a 
state  of  undefined  uneasiness :  men  talked  of  a  stroke 
of  state  policy,  a  coup  d'etat,  without  believing  in  it, 
because,  after  all,  nothing  abnormal  or  disquieting  had 
taken  place.  But  on  the  morning  of  May  16,  the  mar- 
shal addressed  to  M.  Jules  Simon  an  angry  and,  in 
every  way,  improper  letter,  in  which  he  withdrew  from 
him  his  confidence.  In  a  few  moments  the  contents 
of  the  letter  were  known  throughout  Paris,  where 
it  caused  troubled  surprise.  A  ready-made  ministry 
sprang  out,  as  it  were,  from  a  trap.  The  Due  de 
Broglie  was  its  President ;  MM.  de  Meaux,  de  Four- 
tou,  and  a  Bonapartist  senator,  M.  Brunet,  were  his 
colleagues.^ 

A  message  of  prorogation  was  addressed  to  the 
Chambers  :  "  I  am  none  the  less  firmly  resolved  to-day 

1  A  recent  incident  had  furnished  him  with  an  occasion  for  acting  at 
once  with  firmness  and  with  prudence ;  a  pontifical  bull,  instituting  a 
"  chancellor  of  the  University  of  Lille,"  had  been  declared  null  and  void ; 
but  while  refusing  to  recognize  it,  because  it  was  contrary  to  the  laws, 
the  government  had  not  yielded  to  the  pressure  of  the  hasty,  who  de- 
manded, with  loud  cries,  that  the  free  Universitj'  of  Lille  should  be  closed. 

2  General  Berthaut  and  the  Due  Decazes  retained  their  offices. 


THE  SIXTEENTH  OF  MAT.  69 

than  yesterday,"  said  the  head  of  the  State,  "to  respect 
and  uphold  the  institutions  which  are  the  work  of  the 
Assembly  from  which  I  hold  my  power,  and  which  has 
set  up  the  Republic.  Until  1880  I  am  the  only  person 
who  can  propose  a  change,  and  I  do  not  intend  to  do 
anything  of  the  sort ;  all  my  councillors  are,  like  my- 
self, determined  loyally  to  put  in  practice  the  institu- 
tions, and  are  incapable  of  aiming  any  blow  at  them. "  ^ 
It  is  not  certain  that  the  President's  "councillors" 
shared,  on  this  point,  the  opinion  which  he  expressed 
with  so  much  assurance.  As  for  his  conscience,  it 
reproached  him  with  nothing.  Alongside  of  the  re- 
publican watchword,  which  he  had  accepted  without 
mental  reservations  and  which  he  was  observing  with 
a  fidelity  "  proceeding  both  from  the  delicate  feelings 
of  a  gentleman  and  from  the  passivity  of  the  good 
gendarme,"  2  he  considered  no  less  imperious  another 
unwritten  watchword  which  he  interpreted  with  the 
prejudices  of  his  class  and  under  the  dominating  in- 
fluence of  the  circles  which  surrounded  him.  This 
was  the  clerical  and  conservative  order  of  the  day  in 
the  sense  which  the  clericals  attributed  to  this  expres- 
sion. In  their  eyes,  the  marshal  was  not  the  sole 
guardian  of  public  order ;  he  was  still  the  defender 
of  certain  ideas,  the  protector  of  certain  groups.    There 

1  M.  Ernest  Daudet,  in  his  Souvenirs  de  la  Pr^sidence  du  Mar^chal 
MacMahon,  asserts  that  the  16th  of  May  was  the  personal  and  spontaneous 
act  of  the  marshal.  No  one  said  to  him :  "  The  hour  has  come  for  action : 
act."  The  discussions  in  the  Chamber  exasperated  him,  and  of  his  own 
prompting  he  wrote  the  famous  letter.  But,  on  the  other  hand,  M.  Daudet 
admits  that  this  act  had  many  co-workers :  "  The  imprudent  counsels  of  the 
Right,  and  the  sterile  violences  of  the  Left,  had,"  he  says,  "raised  the 
head  of  the  State  to  a  white  heat."  As  for  the  Due  de  Broglie,  he  was  not 
very  enthusiastic  at  first.  M.  Daudet  puts  into  his  mouth  this  phrase : 
"We  have  been  thrown  clumsily  into  the  water,  and  we  must  swim." 

2  Jules  Ferry,  Discours  et  Opinions,  Vol.  II. 


70  THE  EVOLUTION  OF  FRANCE. 

were  opinions  to  which  he  ought  not  to  allow  expres- 
sion ;  there  were  men  to  whom  he  ought  to  bar  the  way. 
They  repeated  this  to  him  every  moment.  Had  he 
been  left  to  himself,  he  would  have  been  a  model  Presi- 
dent ;  as  he  was  incessantly  worried  by  the  people  who 
surrounded  him,  he  lost  the  proper  sense  of  his  own 
situation,  of  the  origin  of  his  power  and  of  the  nature 
of  his  prerogatives.  Hence  the  honest  clearness  of  his 
language,  and  the  lack  of  conformity  between  his  words 
and  his  actions.  When  in  the  course  of  his  journeys 
he  replied  to  addresses,  or  sent  a  message  to  the  country, 
it  was  he  himself  who  spoke  or  wrote  ;  others,  too  often, 
acted  in  his  name.  But  all  political  influences,  all  those 
which  were  exercised  in  the  name  of  a  fixed  party, 
found  him  unshaken ;  he  had  consented  to  be  the 
President  of  the  Republic ;  to  betray  the  Republic 
would  have  caused  him  horror ;  to  serve  Bonapartist 
or  legitimist  interests  would  have  been  to  betray  it. 
The  influence  exercised  in  the  name  of  religion  found 
him  quite  differently  disposed  ;  in  that  quarter  he  was 
vulnerable  ;  in  that  quarter,  also,  action  was  incessantly 
brought  to  bear,  and  the  marshal  yielded  to  it  all  the 
more  readily  because,  in  resisting  the  republicans,  he 
imagined  that  he  was  still  being  of  use  to  the  Re- 
public. 

The  act  which  he  had  just  perpetrated,  moreover,  re- 
tained in  his  eyes  the  character  of  legality:  in  demand- 
ing of  the  Senate  the  dissolution  of  the  Chamber,  he 
did  not  exceed  his  prerogatives;  at  the  most,  he  over- 
stepped them  a  little  by  discharging  the  ministers  on 
his  own  authority.  But  if  the  Constitution  remained 
intact  in  form,  the  spirit  of  it  was,  manifestly,  vio- 
lated; the  16th  of  May  was  —  or  tried  to  be,  for  it  suf- 
fered shipwreck  —  a  moral  stroke  of   state  policy  (coup 


THE  SIXTEENTH  OF  MAY.  71 

cTStat).  It  was  directed  at  ideas,  rather  than  at  men; 
it  aimed  to  hit  doctrines,  not  institutions.  Conse- 
quently, it  was  for  several  days  misunderstood;  at 
first,  the  country  thought  it  a  rather  abrupt  appeal 
from  her  chief,  who  was  consulting  her  in  all  frankness, 
for  the  purpose  of  obtaining  from  it  indications  of  a 
clearer  and  more  decisive  course  to  steer.  The  excite- 
ment increased  in  proportion  as  the  attitude  of  the  gov- 
ernment contributed  to  emphasize  the  character  and 
scope  of  the  enterprise.  Men  found  themselves,  with 
amazement,  face  to  face  with  an  energetic  and  malevo- 
lent attack  upon  public  opinion,  made  with  the  object 
of  controlling  and  capturing  it.  The  clergy  joined  in 
it  with  ardor.  The  marshal  had  a  policy  ;  he  spoke  of 
it  on  every  occasion,  even  to  the  army,^  through  the 
strange  incoherence  of  his  disturbed  judgment.  The 
ministers  assumed  an  attitude  of  battle.  "  We  have 
not  your  confidence,  you  have  not  ours,"  M.  Fourtou 
said  audaciously,  from  the  tribune  of  the  Chamber. 
People  had  thought  it  was  a  caprice;  it  was  a  platform. 
Everywhere  in  the  country  districts  men  formed  cir- 
cles, seized  the  newspapers  ;  the  prefects  had  ingen- 
iously discovered  a  means  of  eluding  the  law  of  1875.2 
They  removed  the  mayors,  and  a  barefaced  pressure 
was  brought  to  bear  on  the  functionaries  who  retained 
their  posts.  "  Alongside  of  the  official  demonstrations, 
by  which  people  declare  that  they  wish  to  remain  on 

1  At  the  review  in  the  Bois  de  Boulogne. 

2  From  a  speech  made  on  July  19,  1883,  in  the  Senate,  by  M.  Martin- 
Feuille'e,  Keeper  of  the  Seals  (Ferry  Cabinet),  in  connection  with  the  law 
suspending  the  irremovability  of  magistrates,  it  would  result  that,  in  five 
months,  at  the  epoch  of  May  10,  there  were  2700  prosecutions  of  the  Press, 
more  than  a  million  francs  of  fines  imposed,  and  forty-six  years  of  prison 
applied  to  journalists.  As  for  the  removals,  between  May  24-29, 127  sub- 
prefects  and  lieutenant-governors  had  been  replaced;  in  two  months, 
M.  Fourtou  removed  217  prefects  and  sub-prefects. 


72  THE  EVOLUTION  OF  FRANCE. 

constitutional  ground,"  says  M.  de  Mazade,^  "there  is 
in  progress  a  whole  system  of  operations  which  is  grad- 
ually thrusting  the  government  out  of  the  regular 
ways,  separating  the  personal  power  of  the  marshal 
from  the  Constitution,  threatening  the  country  with 
fresh  crises,  with  repeated  dissolutions,  if  it  does  not 
vote  right."  In  the  face  of  all  these  illegalities,  there 
was  but  one  thing  left  for  the  majority  to  do:  to  pre- 
sent for  re-election  the  363  who  had  voted  against  the 
ministry  of  May  16. 

When  summer  came,  the  Councils  General  assembled, 
as  a  matter  of  form,  as  the  Parliament  had  not  voted, 
for  1878,  the  direct  taxes  which  the  departmental  as- 
semblies have  to  distribute  in  their  August  session. 
As  the  time  for  the  elections  drew  near,  —  they  had 
been  fixed  for  October  14,  the  limit  of  delay  allowed 
by  law,  —  official  candidacy  became  more  and  more 
scandalous.  The  notice,  "Candidate  of  the  govern- 
ment of  Marshal  MacMahon,"  figured  on  white  paper 
in  the  mayors'  offices.^  The  administration  was  lavish 
in  its  appeals  to  the  zeal  of  its  representatives,  follow- 
ing up  the  public  circulars  with  confidential  circulars 
which  modified  them;  ^  at  the  same  time,  the  bishops  pub- 
lished electoral  charges,  inviting  the  faithful  to  march 
to  the  polls,  as  to  the  fulfilment  of  a  religious  duty. 

But  in  spite  of  searches  and  repressions,  the  govern- 
ment did  not  succeed  in  persuading  the  country  that 
MM.  B^renger,  L6on  Renault,  Laboulaye,  Dufaure,  or 
Leon  Say  were  dangerous  revolutionists.  At  first 
sight,  the  results  of  the  day  of  October  14  appeared 
rather  indistinct ;  but  it  was  soon  perceived  that  the 

1  Reova  des  Deux  Mondes.    Chronique. 

2  The  white  posters,  as  is  well  known,  are  the  oflScial  notices. 
»  Jules  Ferry,  Speech  in  the  Chamher,  November  14,  1877. 


THE  SIXTEENTH  OF  MAT.  73 

reactionary  party  had  suffered  a  terrible  defeat.  The 
pressure  exercised  in  its  favor  had  won  it  only  forty 
seats,  and  the  republican  majority  remained  over  one 
hundred.i  A  deviation  of  700,000  votes  out  of  10,000- 
000  registered  and  of  7,000,000  voters,  represented  the 
difference  of  forces  in  the  two  camps. 

This  long  crisis  injured  both  the  Constitution  and 
the  Universal  Exposition  of  1878,  which  opened  in  the 
following  spring.  Commerce  and  industry  suffered 
from  it  ;  uncertainty  and  stagnation  reigned  every- 
where. Nevertheless,  in  certain  circles,  men  did  not 
shrink  from  the  responsibility  of  prolonging  this  un- 
fortunate state  of  affairs,  to  the  detriment  of  the  coun- 
try; the  ministers  did  not  immediately  retire,  having 
in  view,  perhaps,  the  possibility  of  another  dissolution 
which  the  extreme  parties  demanded.  It  became  neces- 
sary to  overthrow  the  Cabinet;  then,  twenty  days  later  to 
overthrow  the  working  Cabinet  which  was  made  up,  on 
November  23,  under  the  presidency  of  General  Roche- 
bouet,  and  with  which  the  Chamber  refused  "  to  enter 
into  relations,  in  view  of  the  fact  that  it  saw  in  the  con- 
stitution of  this  Cabinet  the  disavowal  of  parliamentary 
principles."  2  At  last,  breaking  away  from  the  baleful 
advice  of  his  immediate  circle,  the  marshal  became 
himself  again  and  decided  to  summon  M.  Dufaure,  who 
formed  a  ministry  with  the  aid  of  MM.  de  Marcere, 
L^on  Say,  Bardoux,  Waddington  (Foreign  Affairs),  de 
Freycinet,  Teisserenc  de  Bort,  Admiral  Pothuau,  and 

1  363  against  158  was  the  old  Chamber,  in  the  great  days ;  320  against 
210  is,  pretty  nearly,  the  new  Chamber,  when  it  is  complete.  (Ch.  de 
Mazade,  Revue  des  Deux  Mondes.    Chronique.) 

2  Journal  Officiel.  The  deputies,  at  the  same  time,  refused  their  sanc- 
tion to  credits  opened  by  decrees  in  the  absence  of  the  Parliament,  and 
the  committee  on  appropriations  refused,  until  further  orders,  to  present 
any  report  on  the  direct  taxes.  This  energetic  attitude  conquered  all  the 
resistance  of  the  Elysee. 


74  THE  EVOLUTION  OF  FRANCE. 

General  Borel.  This  was  the  return  to  normal  life,  the 
re-entrance  "into  parliamentary  verity,  into  the  safe 
practice  of  the  institutions."^  The  extremists  of  the 
Right  saw  in  it  a  "capitulation  in  the  face  of  the 
enemy."  But  the  nation,  delivered  from  all  anxiety 
and  reassured,  joyfully  returned  to  its  business.  All 
was  at  peace  :  Marshal  Canrobert  went  to"  represent 
France  at  the  funeral  of  Victor  Emmanuel;  a  little 
later,  the  Catholic  world  greeted  with  acclamation  the 
accession  of  Leo  XIII.  to  the  pontifical  throne,  and 
many  were  under  the  impression  that  a  new  era  was 
beginning  for  the  Church.  At  Versailles,  M.  de  Frey- 
cinet.  Minister  of  Public  Works,  presented  the  famous 
plan  which  bears  his  name  and  which  had  for  its  object 
the  completion  of  the  network  of  railways  and  naviga- 
ble streams  ;  finally,  the  Exposition  opened  on  May  1, 
1878;  its  success,  the  national  wealth  and  vitality  of 
which  it  furnished  so  dazzling  a  proof,  the  visits  of 
royal  princes  which  the  marshal  received,  the  profound 
impression  made  upon  Europe  by  the  spectacle  of  our 
very  rapid  recovery,  —  all  contributed  to  restore  calm 
and  security  to  men's  minds. 

Nevertheless,  the  noise  of  violins  and  the  glare  of 
illuminating  lamps  did  not  prevent  them  from  keeping 
their  eyes  riveted  upon  the  senatorial  elections  of  Jan- 
uary 5,  1879,  because,  as  was  most  justly  said,  on  the 
results  produced  by  this  ballot  depended,  in  great  part, 
the  future  of  the  new  order  of  things.^     The  republi- 

^  Speech  of  M,  Bardoux,  Minister  of  Public  Education.  On  the  other 
hand,  the  message  of  December  15  formally  recognized  the  irresponsibil- 
ity of  the  President,  the  responsibility  of  the  ministers,  and  the  sovereignty 
of  universal  suffrage,  that  "  judge  without  appeal  "  ;  this  was  the  form  of 
disavowal  inflicted  by  the  marshal  upon  the  doctrines  of  which  they  had 
tried  to  make  him  the  representative. 

2  M.  de  Freycinet  visited  Normandy,  then  the  Nord,  in  company  with 


THE  SIXTEENTH   OF  MAY.  75 

can  plan  of  campaign  consisted  in  discarding  all  the 
senators  elected  who  had  voted,  on  May  16,  for  the  dis- 
solution of  the  Chamber.  On  October  27,  1878,  the 
municipal  councils  nominated  their  delegates ;  from 
that  moment,  the  character  of  the  elections  of  Janu- 
ary 5  could  be  foreseen ;  they  were,  at  the  same  time, 
both  conservative  and  republican,  in  this  sense,  that 
the  newly  elected  belonged  to  the  moderate  shade  of 
opinion,  while  remaining  firmly  constitutional.  The 
chief  point  was,  that  thenceforth  the  Republic  had  in 
the  upper  Chamber  a  majority  of  sixty  votes. 

This  would  have  been  the  proper  moment  for  all  the 
extreme  views  of  the  Left  to  lay  down  their  arms  ;  but 
it  often  happens,  in  such  circumstances,  that  exactions 
increase  with  success  ;  the  divergences  of  view  between 
the  ministry  and  the  majority  became  more  clearly 
defined  and  more  emphatic.  The  majority  demanded 
the  suppression  of  the  Roman  Catholic  universities,^ 
secularism,  free  and  obligatory  primary  education ; 
that  unauthorized  monastic  companies  should  be  pro- 
hibited from  teaching;  that  the  ministers  of  May  16 
should  be  impeached ;  amnesty  and  the  weeding  out  of 
functionaries.  The  government  was  disposed  to  grant 
only  the  resumption  by  the  State  of  the  right  to  bestow 
university  degrees ;  obligatory  and  semi-gratuitous  pri- 

M.  Leon  Say,  then  the  Sud-Ouest ;  he  spoke  much  concerning  public 
works,  and  a  little  about  politics.  His  language  was  moderate  in  tone,  and 
he  never  ceased  to  appeal  to  the  true  conservatives,  exhorting  them  to 
rally  their  forces.  Gambetta  was  making  pilgrimages  also,  and  received 
triumphal  ovations.  He  launched  at  the  Romans  a  new  war-cry  against 
clericalism,  the  inopportuneness  of  which  he  seemed  himself  to  regret. 
He  tried,  nevertheless,  to  seem  as  ministerial  as  possible,  and  to  render 
more  easy  for  M.  Dufaure  and  his  colleagues  their  daily  task. 

1  Four  free  departments  of  law  had  opened  their  doors  in  1875 ;  they 
were  established  at  Paris,  Lyons,  Lille,  and  Angers.  The  creation  of  other 
departments  had  been  announced,  but  professors,  rather  than  money, 
proved  to  be  scarce. 


76  THE  EVOLUTION  OF  FRANCE. 

mary  education  ;  the  suppression  of  the  letter  of  obe- 
dience that  took  the  place,  in  the  monastic  orders 
which  were  engaged  in  teaching,  of  the  certificate  of 
capacity  ;  large  measures  of  clemency  ;  and  a  limited 
weeding  out.  These  concessions  were  deemed  exces- 
sive, on  the  Right ;  in  reality,  they  were  very  satisfac- 
tory, and  amply  fulfilled  the  needs  of  the  moment. 
On  the  14th  of  January,  the  ministry  defended  its  plat- 
form and  obtained  an  order  of  the  day,  which  contained 
more  distrust  than  confidence.^ 

A  ministerial  crisis  was  expected ;  what  came  was 
a  presidential  crisis.  The  government  had  resigned 
itself  to  the  necessity  of  pronouncing  a  certain  number 
of  dismissals,  nearly  all  of  them  justifiable,  but  which 
might  have  been  effected  in  a  less  brutal  manner,  and 
with  a  more  just  feeling  of  services  rendered.  On  Jan- 
uary 25,  M.  Leon  Say  brought  to  the  Council  a  decree 
dismissing  divers  functionaries  in  the  department  of 
Finance.  After  a  brief  resistance,  the  marshal  afiSxed 
his  signature.  Again  he  signed,  on  the  28th,  the  dis- 
missal of  the  Minister  of  Public  Worship,  M.  Tardif, 
presented  to  him  by  M.  Bardoux  ;  but  when  General 
Gresley  made  known  to  him  the  changes  which  he  pro- 
posed to  effect  in  the  commands  of  the  army  corps,^  the 

1  Gambetta  had  suddenly  left  the  ministry,  under  the  influence  of  a 
petty  spite.  General  Borel  had  retired,  because  he  was  not  able  to  defend, 
in  a  proper  manner,  from  the  tribune,  the  interests  of  the  army,  and  the 
marshal  had  preferred,  for  the  post  of  Minister  of  War,  General  Gresley, 
rather  than  General  Farre,  Gambetta's  candidate.  This  was  merely  a 
wound  to  self-love,  but  it  was  added  to  many  others.  As  President  of  the 
Committee  on  Appropriations,  Gambetta  should  have  been  invited  to  the 
marshal's  official  dinners,  at  the  Palace  of  the  Elysee :  but  he  was  not,  and 
could  not  justly  resent  it.  The  decidedly  too  aristocratic  following  of  the 
head  of  the  State  spared  neither  disdain  nor  sarcasms  to  the  "  new  strata." 

2  Five  commanders  of  army  corps  were  dismissed ;  five  others.  Gen- 
erals Bataille,  Bourbaki,  du  Barail,  de  Lartigne,  and  de  Montaudon,  were 
placed  on  the  retired  list. 


THE  SIXTEENTH  OF  MAT.  77 

marshal  refused  to  have  anything  to  do  with  it,  not,  as 
has  been  asserted,  in  violent  and  angry  terms,  but  in  a 
tone  which  indicated  that  his  mind  was  made  up,  and 
that  his  will  was  irrevocable. 

On  January  30  the  Council  of  Ministers  assembled 
at  Versailles  to  listen  to  the  reading  of  the  message  by 
which  the  President  withdrew  from  his  functions.  A 
few  hours  later,  M.  Jules  Grevy  was  proclaimed  Presi- 
dent of  the  French  Republic  by  563  votes  out  of  the 
670  cast.  Just  at  the  moment  when  the  result  of  the 
vote  was  reported  to  him  in  his  apartments,  M.  Grevy 
received  a  visit  from  Marshal  de  MacMahon.  "  I 
wished,"  said  the  illustrious  soldier,  "  to  be  the  first  to 
greet  the  head  of  the  State."  The  scene  bore  the 
imprint  of  a  truly  republican  simplicity. 

M.  Grevy  had  not  calculated  upon  the  difficulties 
which  awaited  him.  If  the  rapidity  and  dignity  with 
which  the  transmission  of  the  presidential  power  had 
again  been  effected  was  of  a  nature  to  make  a  favorable 
impression  upon  Europe,  on  the  other  hand,  the  acces- 
sion to  the  supreme  rank  of  a  plain  lawyer,  sprung  from 
the  ranks  of  the  people,  marked  too  great  a  stage  in 
the  forward  march  of  French  democracy  not  to  arouse 
abroad  certain  anxieties  and  certain  susceptibilities. 
With  noble  frankness,  M.  Grevy  asked  the  marshal 
for  his  aid,  and  the  latter  did  not  hesitate.  ^ 

Thus  ended  the  second  Presidency  of  the  Republic. 
The  government  emerged  from  it  greater  and  stronger. 
No  one  but  the  marshal  was  capable  of  accrediting  the 

1  The  marshal  interposed,  in  person,  with  several  ambassadors,  on 
behalf  of  his  successor,  of  whom  he  spoke  to  them  in  particularly  eulogis- 
tic terms ;  he  also  wrote  to  certain  of  our  representatives  abroad.  The 
Marquis  d'Harcourt,  the  Comte  de  Saint- Vallier,  General  Le  Flo,  the  Comte 
de  Vogiie,  Admiral  Jaures  had,  in  fact,  either  resigned  or  announced  their 
intention  to  resign. 


78  THE  EVOLUTION  OF  FRANCE. 

Republic  to  the  emperors  and  kings  of  whom  his  title, 
his  rank,  and  the  military  glory  which  surrounded  him 
rendered  him  almost  the  equal.  At  home,  being  pos-, 
sessed  of  liberal  instincts,  as  he  had  already  proved 
under  the  Empire,  his  chief  fault  was  too  great  mod- 
esty. He  had  not  sufficient  confidence  in  his  own 
judgment.  His  first  steps  in  his  governmental  career 
showed  him  to  us  obstinately  pursuing  the  establish- 
ment of  something  definite,  claiming  that  constitution 
which  had  been  promised  to  him.  He  made  the 
16th  of  May,  because  he  had  been  led  to  believe  in 
an  imaginary  danger  which  France  was  incurring. 
Under  bad  advice,  he  fell  into  the  trap  which  had  been 
set  for  him,  and  did  not  become  himself  again  until  he 
had  "torn  asunder  that  veil  of  passionate  arguments 
which  had  been  stretched  before  his  eyes."^  In 
reality,  he  was  "haunted  by  anxiety  for  legality," ^ 
and  ironical  fate  condemned  his  memory  to  bear  the 
burden  of  arbitrary  measures,  for  which  he  was  hardly 
responsible. 

A  new  period  now  began,  —  a  period  of  latent,  under- 
ground working  of  which  superficial  observers  were 
able  to  detect  only  the  colorless  character.  As  Gam- 
betta  had  just  said :  ^  "The  era  of  dangers  was  at  an 
end;  that  of  difficulties  about  to  begin."  The  hour 
had  arrived  for  considering  "what  is  ripe,  what  is 
urgent,  what  must  wait,  what  must  be  discarded,  what 
must  be  resolutely  condemned." 

1  Ernest  Daudet,  Souvenirs  de  la  Prisidence  du  Marichal  MacMahon. 
^Ibid. 

8  Speech  at  the  banquet  of  the  commercial  travellers,  at  the  Grand 
Hotel  (January,  1879). 


THE  CONGRESS  OF  BERLIN.  79 


CHAPTER  IV. 

THE  ALARM  OF  1875,  AND  THE  CONGRESS  OF  BERLIN. 

Composure  and  Abstention.  —  A  Triple  Altei'native.  —  The  Conference  of 
London. — M.  de  Bismarck's  Ideas.  —  Intervention  of  Europe.  —  At 
the  Congress  of  Berlin ;  the  First  Partition  of  Turkey.  —  Disinterested- 
ness appreciated.  —  The  Difficulties  of  Republican  Diplomacy.  —  Forma- 
tion of  the  Triple  Alliance. 

The  foreign  policy  of  France  from  1870  to  1889  is 
summed  up,  in  the  eyes  of  many  persons,  in  two 
words,  —  composure  and  abstention.  This  is,  in  fact, 
the  very  wise  formula  which  the  country  enjoined 
upon  her  representatives  ;  our  defeat,  and  the  arduous 
toil  which  it  enforced  upon  us,  counselled  a  reserve  the 
necessity  of  which  was  rendered  still  more  imperious 
by  the  fact  that  the  Republic  was  obliged,  on  nearly 
all  her  frontiers,  to  handle  with  great  caution  the  sus- 
ceptibilities of  monarchical  feeling.  But  a  country 
cannot  control  foreign  affairs  as  easily  as  the  finances 
or  the  administration,  and  the  orders  which  it  issued 
were  not  rigorously  observed.  No  sooner  was  the 
Franco-German  War  ended,  than  Europe  began  to  busy 
itself  with  the  attitude  which  our  diplomats  would 
assume,  and  with  the  direction  which  they  would  im- 
part to  our  foreign  policy,  so  thoroughly  was  it  under- 
stood that  a  great  nation  cannot  maintain  itself  in  an 
isolated  position,  even  if  the  form  of  its  government 
forbids  it  to  negotiate  alliances  with  neighboring 
States.  The  most  autocratic  monarchies,  those  most 
thoroughly  imbued  with  the  doctrines  of  divine  right. 


80  THE  EVOLUTION  OF  FRANCE. 

have  been  led,  by  the  force  of  circumstances,  to  come 
to  terms  with  revolutionary  governments,  which  they 
had  tried  to  ignore,  or  with  which  they  had,  at  first, 
endeavored  to  hold  only  distant  and  cautious  relations. 
But  such  was  not  the  case  with  the  Third  Republic, 
regularly  and  legally  constituted.^  Therefore,  French 
statesmen  running  counter  to  the  sentiments  of  prudent 
reserve  which  directed  public  opinion,  and  which,  more- 
over, facilitated  their  task,  took  care  not  to  exhibit 
towards  Europe  an  indifference  and  independence  which 
would  have  injured  the  interests  with  which  they  were 
entrusted. 

The  probabilities  of  the  future  pointed,  in  1871, 
towards  an  alliance  with  Austria.  It  was  felt  to  be 
plain  sailing,  to  the  regret  of  our  conquerors,  and  the 
memory  of  Sadowa  effaced  that  of  Solferino.  The  simi- 
larity of  their  destinies  was  bound  to  draw  together,  it 
appeared,  two  nations  which  a  fortuitous  war  had  ren- 
dered enemies,  between  whom  friendship  and  esteem  had 
continued  to  exist.^  Italy,  by  her  official  ingratitude, 
which  was  not  offset  by  the  devotion  of  some  of  her  sons ; 
England,  by  the  exaggerated  caution  of  her  neutrality; 
Russia,  by  the  simultaneousness  of  her  action,  which  had 
made  evident  her  understanding  with  Prussia,  —  had 
fallen  under  our  suspicion.     Properly  speaking,  noth- 

1  The  idea  expressed  by  Admiral  La  Ronciere-Le  Noury,  that  "  the  form 
of  her  government  prohibited  France  from  resuming  her  place  in  the 
European  concert,"  was  shared,  in  the  beginning,  by  many  of  the  republi- 
cans, who  grieved  over  it,  but  saw  no  way  of  remedying  it.  Of  course,  the 
command  of  the  Mediterranean  squadron  was  taken  away  from  the 
admiral  for  having  permitted  himself  such  a  piece  of  folly  in  public.  (1875.) 

2  It  is  to  be  observed  that,  in  spite  of  her  long  participation  in  the 
Triple  Alliance,  Austria  has  no  enemies  in  France ;  the  Emperor  Francis 
Joseph  is  the  only  one  of  the  sovereigns  in  the  Triplicate  who  could  come 
to  visit  us,  with  a  certainty  that  he  would  be  received  with  sympathetic 
deference.     (Note  of  1895.) 


THE  CONGRESS    OF  BERLIN.  81 

ing  separated  us  from  Austria,  and  on  more  than  one 
point  our  interests  were  identical ;  on  none  were  they 
opposed. 

Now  three  alliances,  or,  rather,  three  understandings, 
—  since  the  word  "alliance"  implies  a  firm  compact, — 
have  been  possible ;  precisely  those  which  immediately 
after  the  war  appeared  the  most  improbable ;  while 
at  no  time  has  the  Franco-Austrian  alliance  had  the 
slightest  chance  of  realization.  The  first  was  the 
understanding  with  England  :  it  allured  a  certain  con- 
tingent of  politicians,  of  liberal  and  thoughtful  minds  ; 
it  was,  without  doubt,  the  least  brilliant,  perhaps  the 
most  rational  and  the  most  solid. ^  The  second  is  the 
understanding  with  Russia ;  statesmen  in  whom  France 
takes  pride  ^  foresaw  it,  and  made  preparations  for  it  by 
new  methods  ;  it  was  sealed  between  the  peoples  before 
it  was  merely  agreed  upon  between  governing  powers ; 
but  the  distinct  will  of  Alexander  III.  gave  it  the 
sanction  without  which  it  would  have  had  no  results. 
The  third  was  the  understanding  with  Germany. 
Jules  Ferry  was  accused  of  having  sought  it ;  perhaps, 
in  fact,  it  did,  for  a  moment,  allure  the  soul  of  the 
great  patriot ;  it  would  have  speedily  restored  the  fort- 
unes of  France,  and  at  the  same  time  have  assured 
the  peace  of  Europe ;  it  was  a  work  of  audacious  deli- 

1  It  is  curious  to  recall  what  Gambetta  said  about  it  in  the  Chamber, 
on  July  18,  1882,  in  connection  with  the  affairs  of  Egypt.  "Well,"  he 
exclaimed,  "  I  have  seen  enough  things  to  tell  you  this :  Never  break  the 
English  alliance,  even  at  the  cost  of  the  greatest  sacrifices.  It  is  not  for 
the  purpose  of  humiliating,  of  lowering,  of  diminishing  French  interests 
that  I  favor  the  alliance  with  England ;  it  is  because  I  believe,  gentlemen, 
that  they  can  be  effectively  defended  by  this  union,  by  this  co-operation 
alone.     If  there  is  a  rupture,  all  will  be  lost." 

2  It  is  just  to  mention,  likewise,  that  private  initiative  which  did  much 
towards  bringing  about  a  current  of  Franco-Russian  sympathy;  in  the 
front  rank  of  private  influences  must  be  placed  that  of  Mme.  Adam. 

G 


82  THE  EVOLUTION   OF  FRANCE. 

cacy,  which  required  the  absolute  confidence  of  the 
nation  in  the  man  who  should  dare  to  undertake  it ;  as 
a  matter  of  course,  it  included  the  revision  of  the  treaty 
of  Frankfort. 

Problems  of  a  less  lofty  order  presented  themselves 
simultaneously  with  those  which  have  influenced  us  to 
recast  our  diplomacy ;  it  was  necessary  to  find  men 
qualified  to  represent  the  Republic  in  the  courts  of 
Europe,  Avithout  being  forced  to  seek  them  in  the  ranks 
of  the  adversaries  of  the  government ;  on  the  other 
hand,  it  was  necessary  to  reconcile  the  policy  of  secu- 
larization, put  in  operation  at  home,  with  the  protection 
of  Roman  Catholic  interests  which  were  intimately 
bound  up,  abroad,  with  our  national  interests.  Al- 
though the  telegraph,  railways,  and  the  progress  of 
democratic  ideas  have  modified  the  conditions  in  which 
it  works,  yet  diplomatic  action,  such  as  is  practised  in 
Europe,  remains  a  question  of  persons.  The  choice 
of  an  ambassador,  his  social  position,  his  tact,  his  quali- 
ties of  mind,  settle  the  reception  which  is  accorded  to 
him,  and  also  the  person  of  the  sovereign  whose  envoy 
he  is,  of  the  minister  whose  ideas  he  represents.  Swit- 
zerland and  the  United  States  form  the  exception,  no 
doubt ;  but  can  they  be  compared  with  France,  which 
has  so  long  a  monarchical  past,  such  extensive  fron- 
tiers, and  so  many  points  of  contact  with  the  States 
which  surround  her  ?  The  diplomats  of  the  other  coun- 
tries all  represent  men,  not  institutions.  How  could 
Germany,  Russia,  Austria,  be  forced  to  admit  that  ob- 
literation of  the  man  in  favor  of  the  institution  which 
is  the  fundamental  dogma  of  the  Republic,  without 
hampering  the  action  of  our  ambassadors  ? 

As  for  the  Roman  Catholic  inheritance,  it  complicated 
the  task  of  the  representatives  of  France  in  the  same 


AD.    THIERS,     FIRST     PRESIDENT    OF    THE    REPUBLIC. 


[TJSI7BRSIT71 


THE  CONGRESS  OF  BERLIN.  83 

degree  as  the  monarchical  inheritance.  No  one  dreamed 
of  repudiating  it;  but  could  any  one  accept  it  in  its  en- 
tirety ?  On  the  very  day  after  it  was  accomplished  by 
force,  and  with  all  the  appearances  of  a  violation  of 
right,  the  fall  of  the  temporal  power  of  the  Popes 
aroused  the  wrath  of  the  Roman  Catholic  universe. 
Time  alone  could  assuage  the  ill-will  by  proving  that 
the  spiritual  power  of  the  Holy  See  had  been  strength- 
ened by  that  fall.  Until  that  time  should  arrive,  great 
circumspection  was  imperatively  necessary.  Our  agents 
would  have  no  influence  as  defenders  of  Roman  Catholic 
interests  at  a  distance,  except  in  so  far  as  France  and 
the  Holy  See  should  maintain  friendly  relations,  and  pre- 
cisely the  hostility  of  the  clergy  and  the  clericals  against 
the  Republic  seemed  destined  to  bring  about  a  tension 
—  perhaps  a  momentary  rupture  between  the  Vatican 
and  the  Cabinet  of  Paris. 

Many  other  difficulties  of  detail  had  accumulated 
beneath  the  feet  of  our  diplomats  ;  among  the  rest,  the 
following,  which  might  appear  particularly  formidable 
to  them  :  their  acts  would  be  interpreted  and  judged 
quite  differently  in  the  French  Parliament  from  the 
way  in  which  they  would  be  interpreted  and  judged  by 
the  public  opinion  of  the  peoples  among  whom  they 
resided  ;  the  point,  of  view  would  never  be  the  same  ; 
the  deputies  would  be  unable  to  divest  themselves,  for 
the  purpose  of  considering  foreign  policy,  of  the  habits 
of  mind  with  which  they  decided  domestic  affairs  ;  for, 
it  must  be  said,  if  the  republican  party  had  prepared 
itself  to  govern  at  home,  it  had  made  no  preparations 
to  negotiate  abroad  ;  but  a  scheme  of  diplomacy  cannot 
be  invented,  and  diplomats  cannot  be  extemporized. 

Sagacity,  patriotism,  made  everything  easy ;  but 
none  the  less,  when  we  consider  the  arduousness  of  the 


84  THE  EVOLUTION    OF  FRANCE. 

task  must  we  pay  homage  to  those  who  accepted  it 
with  self-devotion,  and  fulfilled  it  with  skill. 

On  September  9,  1870,  Jules  Favre,  Minister  of 
Foreign  Affairs  of  the  National  Defence,  had  "  entreated 
M.  Thiers  to  go  and  solicit  the  aid  of  the  British 
Cabinet."^  Of  all  the  European  powers,  England  was 
the  one  which  remained  most  indifferent  to  the  over- 
throw of  a  throne,  and  her  interest  seemed  to  be  not  to 
permit  Germany  to  abuse  her  victory.  It  was  natural 
to  appeal  to  her,  in  the  first  place ;  but  M.  Thiers  did 
not  wish  to  go  to  London  without  also  going  to  Rome, 
to  Vienna,  to  St.  Petersburg,  chief  of  all.  Had  he  the 
unexpressed  idea  that,  as  the  necessary  head  of  the  gov- 
ernment which  was  on  the  point  of  being  established, 
it  was  desirable  that  he  should  "  present  the  Republic 
to  Europe  in  his  person  "  ?  ^  This  plan  was  not  felici- 
tous. It  was  a  sentimental  policy ;  M.  Thiers  was  a 
bad  diplomat ;  he  did  not  conceal  well  his  private 
thoughts,  and  too  great  a  confidence  in  his  own  prestige 
prevented  his  adopting  the  language  and  the  manners 
of  the  chancellors'  offices.  Moreover,  the  undertaking 
was  beyond  the  strength  or  talent  of  any  one.^ 

Europe  assembled  at  London,  but  it  was  for  the 
purpose  of  revising  that  treaty  of  1856,  which  we  had 
imposed  upon  Russia  fifteen   years  earlier,  and  which 

1  Debidour,  Histoire  Diplomatique,  Vol.  II. 

2  Ihid. 

3  It  has  been  asserted  that,  during  M.  Thiers'  journey,  the  Comte  de 
Chambord,  who  represented  Foreign  Affairs  in  the  delegation  of  Tours, 
had  succeeded  in  arousing  the  susceptibility  of  England,  by  making  her 
fear  that  M.  Thiers  had  entered  into  engagements  with  Russia.  The 
English  government,  it  is  said,  even  made  a  proposal  which  was  very 
well  received  by  Italy  and  Austria,  and  which  "  aimed  at  a  regular  media- 
tion between  the  belligerent  parties."  M.  Thiers,  ou  his  return  to  Tours, 
is  said  "  to  have  caused  the  failure  of  everything  by  his  obstinacy  in  cling- 
ing to  the  Russian  system."  These  facts,  accepted  by  M.  Debidour  in  his 
Histoire  Diplomatique,  should  be  received,  it  seems  to  us,  with  caution. 


THE  CONGRESS   OF  BERLIN.  86 

now  weighed  in  the  balance  of  our  fate.  Far  from 
dreaming  of  coming  to  the  aid  of  France,  Prince 
Gortchakoff  did  his  duty,  after  all,  as  a  Russian,  by- 
taking  advantage  of  the  circumstances  to  liberate  his 
country  from  the  shackles  applied  to  her  ambitions. 
The  conference  of  London  opened  on  January  17, 1871; 
M.  de  Bismarck  invented  the  most  petty  sort  of  pro- 
ceedings to  prevent  Jules  Favre  from  leaving  Paris, 
and  he  seemed  to  rejoice  that  France's  signature  would 
not  figure  at  the  foot  of  the  act  of  revision  of  the  treaty 
of  1856.  The  conference  overcame  his  resistance ;  it 
adjourned  repeatedly,  by  way  of  expressing  its  explicit 
desire  to  have  a  French  plenipotentiary  take  part  in  the 
labors.^  But  it  was  its  no  less  explicit  will  that  the 
discussion  should  not  be  allowed  to  transgress  its 
bounds  which  had  been  fixed  in  advance  ;  the  majority 
of  the  plenipotentiaries  had  received,  on  this  point, 
very  precise  instructions  from  their  governments,  and 
in  this  way  Lord  Granville's  good  intentions  with 
regard  to  France  were  paralyzed. ^  The  London  con- 
ference was,  none  the  less,  useful  to  our  national  in- 
terests ;  in  order  thoroughly  to  understand  this,  one 
must  imagine  to  himself  the  consequences  which  would 
have  been  entailed  by  a  forced  absence  under  such 
solemn  circumstances,  at  a  moment  when,  in  the 
presence  of  the  disaster  which  we  had  suffered,  Europe 
was  wondering  whether  we  should  ever  succeed  in 
wholly  recovering  from  it. 

There  is  no  doubt  whatever  that  Prince  Bismarck,  by 

1  It  was  not  until  March  13  that  the  Due  de  Broglie  was  able  to  ratify 
the  acts  of  the  conference,  in  the  name  of  France. 

2  Lord  Granville  had  insinuated  that  "  at  the  end  of  the  conference,  or 
even  after  one  of  the  sessions,  tlie  representative  of  France,  taking  ad- 
vantage of  the  presence  of  the  plenipotentiaries,  might  submit  to  them 
some  question  of  interest  for  bis  country." 


86  THE  EVOLUTION  OF  FRANCE. 

causing,  through  his  excessive  demands,  the  prolonga- 
tion of  the  struggle  to  the  last  extremities,  cherished 
the  hope  of  reducing  France  to  the  rank  of  a  secondary 
power  ;  he  had  this  more  at  heart  than  the  possession 
of  Alsace-Lorraine.  An  augmentation  of  territory  was 
nothing  in  comparison  with  the  perspectives  which 
opened  out  for  the  German  Empire  by  the  disappear- 
ance of  France  from  the  concert  of  great  powers. 
This  illusion,  which  he  was  slow  to  renounce,  and  which 
he  appears  to  have  entertained  contrary  to  all  evidence, 
explains  the  brutality  of  his  policy.  When,  at  last, 
his  eyes  were  opened,  his  bad  temper  came  near  provok- 
ing a  new  war  ;  that  is  what  was  called  the  alarm  of 
1875.  When  Europe  interposed,  he  suddenly  recon- 
ciled himself  to  seeing  France  maintained  in  her  former 
rank,  and  confined  himself  to  remaining  on  the  defensive 
towards  her,  not  without  an  eye,  perhaps,  to  the  possi- 
bility of  coming  to  an  understanding  with  her  in  the 
distant  future. 

This  strange  series  of  evolutions  is  outlined  in  the 
correspondence  of  the  chancellor  with  Count  von  Arnim, 
his  ambassador  to  France.  In  January,  1872,  on  the 
arrival  of  Prince  Orlofif  at  Paris,  M.  de  Bismarck  wrote 
to  M.  von  Arnim  :  "I  beg  that  Your  Excellency  will  not 
permit  yourself  to  be  led  astray  by  the  rumor  of  sym- 
pathy for  France  which  has  preceded  the  prince,  nor 
by  the  declarations  of  M.  de  Remusat,  but  that  you  will, 
on  the  contrary,  regard  and  treat  Prince  Orloff  with 
all  confidence,  as  the  sure  friend  of  Germany.  As  I 
have  known  him  for  many  years,  I  cannot  share  the 
fear  that  the  adulation  which  will,  probably,  surround 
him  at  Paris  will  bring  about  a  change  in  his  senti- 
ments. The  national  Russian  feeling  is  very  strong  in 
him,  and  that  constrains  him  to  maintain  good  relations 


THE  CONGBESS  OF  BERLIN.  87 

with  us."^  On  May  12  he  asserted  that  "the  party 
in  favor  of  the  Bonapartist  Erapire  is,  probably,  the 
one  with  whose  assistance  one  can  most  reasonably 
flatter  oneself  that  he  can  establish  tolerable  rela- 
tions between  France  and  Germany." 2  The  despatch 
of  December  20  following  is  one  of  the  most  instruc- 
tive. It  is  plain  that  the  chancellor  desires  that  M. 
Thiers  shall  be  upheld  until  the  treaty  of  Frankfort 
shall  have  been  executed.  He  was  already  afraid  lest 
it  should  become  necessary  "  to  draw  the  sword  again," 
and  his  preferences  now  appear  turned  towards  the 
Republic.  He  fears,  if  royalty  be  re-established,  that 
he  shall  be  forced  by  other  European  cabinets  "to 
favor  the  development  of  the  monarchical  germ  by  mak- 
ing to  the  monarchy  concessions  which  would  have 
been  refused  to  the  Republic."  Moreover,  the  monarchy 
would  render  France  "capable  of  concluding  alliances." 
As  for  the  republican  platform,  the  chancellor  pleas- 
antly rallies  M.  von  Arnim  upon  his  fright  on  this 
point.  "  If  France,"  he  says,  "  were  to  play  in  the 
presence  of  Europe  a  second  act  of  the  uninterrupted 
drama  of  the  Commune  (a  thing  which  I  do  not  desire, 
from  motives  of  humanity),  it  would  help  to  make  the 
Germans  feel  still  more  strongly  the  benefits  of  a 
monarchical  constitution,  and  would  augment  their  at- 
tachment to  the  institutions  of  the  monarchy.  "^  But 
M.  d' Arnim  would  not  be  convinced,  and  his  procedures 
brought  down  upon  him,  on  June  9, 1873  (shortly  after 
the  fall  of  M.  Thiers),  bitter  reproaches  for  having 
managed  to  acquire  personal  influence  over  the  Emperor 
William,  and  to  interest  him  in  the  cause  of  the  mon- 

1  Hippeau,  Histoire  Diplomatique  de  la  Troisieme  Ripuhlique. 

2  Napoleon  III.  was  still  living  at  this  date.     He  did  not  die  until 
January  9,  1873. 

3  Hippeau,  Histoire  Diplomatique  de  la  Troisieme  Rdpublique. 


88  THE  EVOLUTION  OF  FRANCE. 

archy.  "You  have  prevented  our  throwing  all  the 
weight  of  our  influence  into  the  scales  in  favor  of  M. 
Thiers,"  writes  the  chancellor. ^  This  whole  correspond- 
ence proves  how  diificult  M.  de  Bismarck  found  it  to 
separate  the  Republic  from  the  Commune  in  his  own 
mind.  The  reconstruction  of  the  army  did  not  seem 
possible  to  him  without  the  monarchy;  the  idea  of  a 
well-balanced,  rational  Republic  remained  foreign  to 
him.  On  the  other  hand,  our  recovery  already  mani- 
fested itself  before  his  very  eyes;  he  could  not  help 
seeing  it ;  so  his  attitude  became  more  and  more  bel- 
ligerent. "  We  are  ready,"  he  wrote,  in  a  later  despatch, 
"  to  fight  the  war  over  again,  as  soon  as  the  presumptu- 
ous acts  of  France  force  us  to  it."  He  recommended 
the  ambassador  not  to  take  any  pains  to  win  the  sym- 
pathy of  the  French,  whose  "every  government,  to 
whatever  party  it  belongs,  will  regard  revenge  as  its 
principal  mission."  And  fortified  by  the  interview  of 
the  three  Emperors  which  had  taken  place  in  Berlin,  he 
thought  he  had  a  right  to  demand  from  the  government 
of  the  marshal,  that,  henceforth,  we  would  regard  "  as 
definitive  the  political  condition  of  Europe."  ^  In  a 
word,  during  this  whole  period  it  seemed  "  to  be  a  part 
of  the  policy  of  Berlin  to  maintain  difficulties  with 
France,  and  not  to  permit  of  their  being  stopped,  or 
coming  to  a  solution. "^  On  November  26,  1873,  imme- 
diately after  the  organization  of  the  seven  years'  term, 
the  Due  Decazes  took  the  department  of  Foreign  Affairs, 
which  he  was  destined  to  conduct  for  four  years. 
Shortly  afterwards,  he  was  led  to  state  from  the  tribune  * 
the  policy  of  the  government  with  regard  to  Italy,  and 

1  Hippeau,  Histoire  Diplomatique  de  la  Troisieme  Ripublique. 

2  Ibid. 

3  Ernest  Daudet,  Souvenirs  de  la  Prdsidence  du  Mar^chal  MacMahon. 

*  In  reply  to  a  question  by  M.  du  Temple.    Session  of  January  20, 1874. 


THE  CONGRESS   OF  BERLIN.  89 

he  defined  France's  double  role  in  these  words :  "  To 
surround  with  pious  respect,  with  sympathetic  and 
faithful  sympathy,  the  august  Pontiff  to  whom  we  are 
united  by  so  many  bonds,  by  extending  that  protection 
and  that  solicitude  to  all  the  interests  which  are  con- 
nected with  the  spiritual  authority,  with  the  indepen- 
dence and  the  dignity  of  the  Holy  Father  ;  to  maintain, 
without  ulterior  designs,  with  Italy  such  as  circum- 
stances have  made  it,  the  harmonious,  pacific,  friendly 
relations  which  the  general  interests  of  France  recom- 
mend, and  which  will  also  permit  us  to  guard  the  great 
moral  interests  with  which  we  rightly  occupy  our  at- 
tention. We  desire  peace,"  added  the  Due  Decazes, 
"  because  we  believe  it  to  be  necessary  for  the  greatness 
and  the  prosperity  of  our  country ;  because  we  believe 
that  it  is  ardently  desired,  ardently  demanded  by  all. 
In  order  to  assure  it,  we  shall  work  without  relaxation 
to  dispel  all  misunderstandings,  to  forestall  all  conflicts, 
and  we  shall  defend  her  against  all  vain  declamations, 
against  all  regrettable  incitations,  from  what  quarter 
soever  they  emanate.  Let  no  one  tell  us  that  we  are 
compromising  the  honor  and  the  dignity  of  France.  The 
honor  and  dignity  of  France  cannot  be  compromised  ex- 
cept by  political  adventurers,  who  would  inevitably  lead 
her  to  the  commission  of  a  weakness  or  a  folly." 

The  form  was  happy,  the  idea  wise.  It  was  of  the 
utmost  importance  to  cut  short,  without  delay,  the 
compromising  manoeuvres  of  the  wild  enthusiasts, 
who  were  combining  in  one  worship  Pius  IX.  and 
Don  Carlos,  and  who  never  took  their  eyes  off  of  Rome 
except  to  gaze  at  the  Spanish  frontier,  where  the  pre- 
tender was  trying  to  regain  his  throne,  arms  in  hand. 
All  the  more  important  was  it  to  clear  the  government 
from  responsibility,  because  Germany  was  not  disinter- 


90  THE  EVOLUTION  OF  FRANCE. 

ested  either  in  the  question  of  Italy,  or  in  the  Spanish 
question.  "I  do  not  for  an  instant  doubt,"  Prince 
Bismarck  is  said  to  have  remarked  at  this  epoch,  "that 
the  revenge  which  is  desired  in  France  will  be  led  up 
to  by  religious  complications  in  Germany.  They  wish 
to  paralyze  German  unity.  An  influential  party  of  the 
Roman  Catholic  clergy,  who  receive  their  orders  from 
Rome  itself,  serves  French  policy  because  with  it  are 
bound  up  the  efforts  at  restoration  in  the  States  of  the 
Church."  1     It  was  the  epoch  of  the  Kulturkampf.^ 

There  were  times  when  the  chancellor  seemed  no 
longer  master  of  himself ;  one  would  have  said  that 
bursts  of  wrath  deprived  him  of  his  habitual  lucidity 
of  mind.  If  we  may  trust  a  confidential  remark,  ex- 
changed in  March,  1875,  between  Count  von  Munster, 
German  ambassador  in  London,  and  Comte  de  Jarnac, 
our  representative,  it  is  to  "  the  nerves  of  M.  de  Bis- 
marck "  that  we  must  attribute  the  anxieties  and  agita- 
tions of  this  period.  It  does  not  appear  improbable, 
to  any  one  who  remembers  the  attempts  at  intimidation 
directed  against  Belgium  in  consequence  of  a  trivial 
accident ;  ^  the  demand  made  upon  Italy  to  modify  the 

1  Hippeau,  Histoire  Diplomatique  de  la  Troisieme  R^publique. 

2  As  early  as  1871  the  Roman  Catholic  division  of  the  Ministry  of 
Public  Worship  had  been  suppressed.  In  the  following  year,  the  Jesuits 
had  been  expelled.  Finally,  on  January  11,  1873,  the  four  laws  known  as 
those  "  concerning  the  Defence  of  civilization,"  whicli  were  passed  on  the 
24th  of  the  following  April,  were  presented.  As  for  Spain,  M.  de  Bismarck 
energetically  upheld  the  government  of  Marshal  Serrano,  and  busied  him- 
self with  making  Europe  recognize  it,  perhaps  through  fear  of  seeing  cleri- 
calism established  there  with  Don  Carlos.  It  was  under  the  inspiration  of 
Germany  that  Marshal  Serrano  took  up  the  frontier  incidents,  and  ad- 
dressed demands  to  France  on  the  subject  of  the  protection  granted  to 
Carlist  refugees.  The  Due  Decazes  managed  to  calm  the  dispute,  and 
soon  afterwards,  the  restoration,  headed  by  Alphonso,  changed  the  face 
of  things. 

'  A  Belgian  coppersmith  had  written  to  the  Archbishop  of  Paris  offer- 
ing to  assassinate  M.  de  Bismarck,  if  the  money  were  forthcoming. 


THE  CONGRESS  OF  BERLIN.  91 

law  of  guarantees,^  because  of  a  pontifical  letter  from 
Pius  IX.,  which  gave  displeasure  at  Berlin;  the  foolish 
repression  which  followed  the  attempt  upon  the  Em- 
peror at  Kissingen  ;  the  prosecution  of  the  director  of 
the  Grermania  against  the  Bishop  of  Nancy  and  the 
thirty-six  priests  who  were  guilty  of  having  read,  from 
the  pulpit,  his  pastoral  letter.^  But  it  was  after  the 
National  Assembly  had  voted  the  law  of  military 
grades  (March  12,  1875)  that  events  seemed  to  be  on 
the  point  of  coming  to  a  crisis.  Recriminations,  quar- 
rels over  the  question  of  armaments,  were  multiplied 
without  reason,  and  a  newspaper  campaign  of  unprece- 
dented violence  began  in  Berlin  ;  the  journals  were, 
evidently,  obeying  the  word  of  command.  The  Vicomte 
de  Gontaut  wrote  to  the  Due  Decazes,  expressing 
his  uneasiness,  and  the  minister  notified  M.  Gavard, 
our  charge  d'affaires  in  London  (Comte  de  Jarnac 
had  just  died),  and  General  Le  Flo,  our  ambassador  in 
St.  Petersburg.  Every  day  the  marshal's  govern- 
ment expected  to  be  attacked  ;  it  had  been  decided 
that  our  troops  should  immediately  retreat  beyond 
the  Loire,  and  that  France  should  appeal  to  Europe 
against  this  violation  of  right.  It  was  thought  that 
the  moment  had  arrived,  when  Prince  Hohenlohe 
presented  himself  at  the  Quai  d'Orsay  as  the  bearer 
of  a  serious  communication  from  his  government 
relative  to  our  armaments,  "which  annoj'^ed  Ger- 
many." But,  very  luckily,  neither  Count  Andrassy, 
nor  Prince  Gortchakoff,  nor  Lord  Derby,  nor  Mr.  Dis- 
raeli fell  into  the  trap  which  was  set  for  them.  It  was 
but  too  evident  that  France  had  given  to  Germany  no 

1  The  law  of  guarantees  regulates  the  relations  of  the  Italian  govern- 
ment with  the  Holy  See. 

2  France  and  the  Holy  See  had  not  yet  proceeded  to  map  out  anew  the 
dioceses  which  had  been  dismembered  by  the  annexation. 


92  THE  EVOLUTION  OF  FBANCE. 

cause  of  discontent.  They  soon  learned  that  Lord 
Odo  Russell  had  intervened  at  Berlin,  and,  on  the  other 
hand,  General  Le  Flo  transmitted,  from  St.  Petersburg, 
a  formal  promise  of  support.^  Public  opinion,  which 
knew  nothing  of  these  negotiations,  was  instructed  by 
the  Times.  In  a  celebrated  correspondence,  dated  from 
Paris,  and  inspired,  it  is  said,  by  an  influential  member 
of  the  ministry,  the  English  journal  unveiled  the  Prus- 
sian plan,  which  consisted  in  "entering  France,  invest- 
ing Paris  by  a  rapid  march,  and  taking  up  a  position  on 
the  table-land  of  Avron,  for  the  purpose  of  imposing  a 
new  treaty  which  should  restore  Belfort  to  Germany, 
limiting  the  number  of  the  standing  army,  and  exacting 
a  contribution  of  ten  milliards  payable  in  twenty  years^ 
with  interest  at  five  per  cent,  and  without  the  anticipa- 
tion of  payment  being  allowed."  This  was  the  appli- 
cation of  a  formula  dear  to  the  German  military  party, 
and  which  may  be  summed  up  as  follows  :  "  Making  an 
end  of  France  is  not  only  an  opportunity  to  be  seized, 
but  it  is  also  a  duty  towards  Germany  and  towards 


1  It  was  said  that  Queen  Victoria  had  directly  intervened  with  the 
German  Emperor.  It  is  very  probable.  In  any  case,  on  the  24th  of  the 
following  May,  Lord  Hartington  having  interrogated  the  Prime  Minister 
on  this  subject,  Mr.  Disraeli  replied :  "  It  is  true  that  the  ministry  advised 
Her  Majesty  to  address  representations  to  the  government  of  the  German 
Emperor  in  relation  to  the  state  of  the  relations  between  France  and 
Germany.  The  object  of  these  observations  was  to  rectify  some  inaccu- 
rate ideas,  and  to  assure  the  maintenance  of  peace.  These  observations 
received  a  satisfactory  reply."  William  I.,  who  did  not  read  the  news- 
papers much,  is  said  to  have  been  ignorant  of  what  was  going  on,  and 
heard  of  it  through  Count  Schouvaloff,  the  Russian  ambassador  in 
London,  who  stopped  at  Berlin  on  his  way  back  to  his  post.  In  spite  of 
his  chancellor's  denials,  the  Emperor  speedily  divined  the  author,  and  his 
secret  motives,  as  is  indicated  by  the  remark  which  he  addressed  to  M.  de 
Gontaut  towards  the  end  of  the  crisis :  "  They  have  tried  to  make  mis- 
chief between  us.  but  it  is  all  over  now."  See  the  narration  of  these 
events  found  in  the  papers  of  M.  Charles  Gavard  and  published  by  the 
Correspondant  (November,  1893) . 


THE  CONGRESS  OF  BERLIN.  93 

humanity."  The  article  in  the  Times  caused  a  pro- 
found sensation  in  Europe  ;  the  indignation  was  gen- 
eral ;  M.  de  Bismarck  feigned  astonishment,  everything 
calmed  down  as  if  by  magic,  and  the  nations  breathed 
freely  once  more.  When  the  EmjDcror  of  Russia 
arrived  in  Berlin,  on  May  11,  the  crisis  was  already 
averted,  but  his  influence  was,  none  the  less,  exercised 
in  the  direction  promised  to  the  Due  Decazes,  and  the 
words  which  he  uttered  made  the  chancellor  under- 
stand the  danger  to  which  he  would  expose  himself 
by  trying  to  mix  the  cards  again. 

Throughout  this  whole  affair  the  Due  Decazes  showed 
a  versatility,  decision,  energy,  and  dignity  for  which 
men  were  very  grateful  to  him,  and  which  were,  never- 
theless, misunderstood.  The  minister's  detractors  even 
went  so  far  as  to  assert  that  France  at  that  time  had  not 
been  "  directly  menaced  "  by  Germany,  and  this  was  v 
done  for  the  purpose  of  ridding  themselves  of  all  grati- 
tude to  him.  History  will  declare,  quite  on  the  con- 
trary, that  he  understood  how  to  adopt  a  line  of  conduct 
which  was  equally  removed  from  presumption,  which 
would  have  deprived  us  of  the  sympathies  of  other 
nations,  and  from  pusillanimity,  which  would  have 
compromised  the  honor  of  France. 

In  the  month  of  June,  of  that  same  year,  1875,  fertile 
in  events  and  in  misunderstandings,  an  insurrection 
broke  out  in  Herzegovina,  and  rapidly  invaded  Bosnia, 
Servia,  and  Montenegro.  Austria,  who  was  most 
directly  interested,  was  the  first  to  intervene,^  but  she 
did  not  succeed  in  triumphing  over  Ottoman  inertia  ; 

1  She  published,  on  November  30,  the  "Andrassy  note,"  which  de- 
manded moderate  satisfaction,  but  in  a  rather  imperious  tone ;  it  was  a 
question  of  religious  liberty,  and  of  the  .amelioration  of  the  lot  of  Chris- 
tians. The  Tnrltish  government  received  the  note  with  an  air  of  deep 
concern  and  shelved  it. 


94  THE  EVOLUTION  OF  FRANCE. 

SO  that,  in  the  spring  of  1876  the  situation,  which 
had  been  growing  worse  every  day,  had  become  very 
serious, — a  general  effervescence  had  manifested  itself 
in  the  East ;  the  consuls  of  France  and  Germany  were 
assassinated  at  Salonica  ;  the  Servians,  beaten  at  all 
points,  appealed  to  Europe,  and  an  insurrectionary 
movement  having  broken  out  in  Bulgaria,  between 
fifteen  and  twenty  thousand  Christians  were  massacred. 
This  iniquitous  repression  unchained  the  wrath  of 
public  opinion,  without,  however,  bringing  the  govern- 
ments into  harmony.  England  refused  her  assent  to 
the  memorandum  of  Berlin,  which  the  three  chancellors 
had  drawn  up,  and  which  France  and  Italy  had  im- 
mediately accepted.  At  Constantinople,  comedy  was 
mingled  with  the  drama.  According  to  a  picturesque 
expression,  the  Sultan  Abd-ul  Azis  had  "been  suicided'*; 
his  successor,  Mourad  V.,  was  playing  the  part  of  a  con- 
stitutional monarch  ;  by  way  of  furnishing  proofs  of  its 
reformatory  intentions,  the  Porte  proclaimed  a  parlia- 
mentary constitution  and  assembled  a  "  High  Council," 
to  which  it  gravely  submitted  the  propositions  of  the 
European  plenipotentiaries  assembled  in  conference  on 
the  shores  of  the  Bosphorus.^  Of  course,  the  High 
Council  rejected  them.  The  Porte  reckoned  on  time 
and  luck  to  extricate  it  from  its  scrape.  But  pacific 
as  were  the  intentions  of  the  Emperor  of  Russia,  he 
could  not  allow  Servia,  "that  vanguard  of  the  Slavic 
world,"  to  be  crushed,  nor  the  Christians  to  be  mas- 
sacred in  Bulgaria  without  coming  to  their  rescue.  On 
February  1,  1877,  Prince  Gortchakoff  published  a 
diplomatic  circular  in  which  were  summed  up  the 
negotiations  which  had   taken  place,  and  which   had 

1  The  conference  opened  on  December  23,  1876,  and  sat  until  January 
20,  1877. 


THE  CONGRESS  OF  BERLIN.  95 

resulted  in  a  checkmate  ;  Russia  asked  from  Europe 
the  warrant  to  act  in  its  name.  A  protocol,  signed  at 
London  on  March  31,  was  addressed  to  Turkey ;  it 
was  a  sort  of  ultimatum,  to  which,  at  Constantinople, 
they  opposed  a  plea  in  bar.  All  attempts  at  concilia- 
tion having  been  exhausted,  the  Emperor  declared  war 
on  April  22. 

There  is  no  need  to  recount  here  all  the  fortunes  of 
the  Russo-Turkish  War  ;  it  proved  that  the  Ottoman 
Empire — the  "  sick  man,"  as  it  was  called  in  the  chancel- 
leries —  still  had  at  its  command  marvellous  reserves  of 
strength  and  of  military  valor.  The  siege  of  Plevna, 
the  names  of  Skobeleff  and  of  Osman  Pasha,  gloriously 
dominate  this  bloody  period. 

Europe  watched  with  anguish  its  successive  phases; 
it  was  reassured  only  when  it  became  evident  that  the 
conflict  would  not  spread.  The  smell  of  powder  made 
it  shudder  ;  it  resembled  a  sentry  standing  guard  over 
a  powder-magazine  and  a  stack  of  burning  hay.  Men 
had  become  accustomed  to  the  thought  that  the  general 
conflagration  which  was  so  much  dreaded  would  have 
its  origin  in  the  neighborhood  of  Constantinople,  and 
that  the  Eastern  Question  contained  the  germ  of  all 
the  evils  with  which  the  West  felt  itself  to  be  menaced. 

France,  in  these  circumstances,  had  preserved  a  very  '^ 
particular  circumspection  ;  thus  the  Due  Decazes  had 
requested  our  agents  and  representatives  to  observe 
the  rules  of  the  strictest  neutrality  ;  ^  nevertheless,  he 
had  given  special  instructions  to  M.  Chaudordy,  order- 
ing him  to  manifest  Russophil  sentiments  in  the  measure 
which  was  compatible  with  the  general  interests  of  the 
country.  England,  also,  remained  neutral;  when  the 
rout  of  the  Turks  was  complete  and  the  treaty  of  San 

1  Circular  of  April  25, 1877. 


96  THE  EVOLUTION  OF  FRANCE. 

Stefano  had  established  their  defeat,  they  seemed  to 
perceive  in  London  that  they  had  waited  too  long,  and 
they  hastened  to  make  up  for  lost  time  ;  the  British 
government  established  itself  on  the  Isle  of  Princes, 
opposite  Constantinople,  threatened  to  occupy  the  Dar- 
danelles, and  openly  made  preparations  for  war,  calling 
the  reserves  in  England  to  arms  and  transporting 
Indian  troops  to  Malta.  Russia  felt  that  she  was  not 
sustained  by  Germany,  and  was  obliged  to  submit  to 
an  international  Congress  assembled  at  Berlin  the 
clauses  of  the  treaty  which  she  had  just  imposed  upon 
Turkey,  and  several  of  which  appeared  exaggerated. ^ 

The  Congress  of  Berlin  differed  greatly  from  those 
diplomatic  conferences  to  which  the  Eastern  Question 
had  been  so  often  submitted  and  which  had  not  been 
able  even  to  regulate  its  least  important  incidents.  It 
was  a  great  assembly;  the  powers  were  represented  at  it 
by  their  most  skilful  statesmen,  —  Prince  Gortchakoff, 
Lord  Beaconsfield,  Prince  Bismarck,  Count  Andrassy.^ 
For  the  German  Empire  it  was  the  first  solemn  act  of 
European  arbitration  ;  it  was,  also,  for  the  French  Re- 
public her  first  entrance  into  the  company  of  the  great 
powers.    M.  Waddington,^  Minister  of  Foreign  Affairs, 

1  This  abandonment  of  Germany  was  keenly  felt  at  St.  Petersburg. 
Russia  asked  from  Germany  the  service  which  she  had  rendered  to  her  in 
1870,  —  the  liberty  of  proceeding  to  the  very  end  without  having  to  fear 
intervention.  But  "  M.  de  Bismarck  made  it  impossible  for  Russia  to  pick 
up  the  gauntlet  which  England  had  thrown  down."  (Debidour,  Histoire 
Diplomatique,  Vol.  II.) 

2 The  plenipotentiaries  were:  for  England,  Lord  Beaconsfield,  Lord 
Salisbury,  and  Lord  Odo  Russell ;  for  Germany,  Prince  Bismarck,  JI.  de 
Bulow,  and  Prince  Hohenlohe-Schillingsfiirst ;  for  Austria,  Count  Andrassy, 
Count  Karolyi,  and  Baron  Haymerle;  for  France,  M.  Waddington,  Count 
de  Saint- Vallier,  and  M.  Deprez;  for  Russia,  Prince  Gortchakoff,  Count 
Schouvaloff,  and  Councillor  d'Oubril ;  for  Italy,  Count  Corti  and  Count 
de  Launay;  for  Turkey,  Caratheodory  Pasha,  Mehemet  Ali  Pasha,  and 
Sadoullah  Bey. 

8  M.  Waddington  had  accepted  the  post  of  Minister  of  Foreign  Affairs 


THE  CONGRESS  OF  BERLIN.  97 

would  not  entrust  to  any  one  the  charge  of  speaking 
in  the  naine  of  France  On  this  occasion.  But  before 
betaking  himself  to  Berlin,  he  was  bent  upon  clearly- 
defining  before  the  Chamber  the  policy  of  frankness 
and  equity  by  which  he  intended  to  be  guided,  —  that 
policy  "of  clean  hands"  to  which  Gambetta  had  al- 
ready laid  claim.  Although  it  was  not  very  fruitful 
in  immediate  results,  yet  the  majority,  in  Parliament  as 
well  as  in  the  country,  had  the  good  sense  to  content 
themselves  with  it ;  it  was  disapproved  only  by  the 
professional  patriots,  always  ready  to  compromise  their 
country  under  the  pretence  of  guarding  its  dignity. 

Once  more  it  came  to  pass  that  the  most  honest 
attitude  was  the  most  clever ;  we  derived  a  real  profit 
from  this  Congress  of  Berlin,  where  our  representatives 
gave  proof  of  the  qualities  which  had  been  lacking  in  our 
preceding  government,  —  disinterestedness,  sagacity, 
calmness.  People  were  agreeably  surprised  to  see  that 
the  Republic  was  so  little  like  what  they  had  augured. 
Moreover,  M.  Waddington  had  made  sure  that  certain 
subjects  would  be  reserved,  that  neither  the  question  of 
Egypt,  nor  that  of  Syria,  would  come  under  consider- 1^ 

in  the  second  Dufaure  ministry,  formed  in  December,  1877,  and  which 
lasted  thirteen  months.  He  became  President  of  the  Council  immediately 
after  the  election  of  M.  Grevy,  left  MM.  de  Marcere,  Le'on  Say,  de  Frey- 
cinet,  and  General  Gresley  in  possession  of  their  posts,  and  added  MM. 
Le  Royer,  Jules  Ferry,  Lepere,  and  Admiral  Jaureguiberry.  M.  Wadding- 
ton, in  spite  of  his  English  name,  belonged  to  a  prominent  family  of 
manufacturers,  which  had  been  settled  in  France  for  over  one  hundred 
years.  Only,  in  contrast  to  many  of  his  cousins,  who  are  wholly  French 
in  their  ways  and  their  language,  M.  W.  Waddington  received  a  part  of 
his  education  in  England,  and  was  connected,  for  several  years,  with  the 
University  of  Cambridge.  He  spoke  English  admirably,  and  retained  certain 
English  habits  with  which  his  enemies  bitterly  reproached  him.  Never- 
theless, he  was  a  good  and  loyal  servant  of  France.  Member  of  the  Insti- 
tute, by  reason  of  his  much-esteemed  works  on  Numismatics,  he  finished 
his  career  as  ambassador  of  France  in  London,  —  a  post  which  he  occupied 
for  nearly  ten  years. 
II 


98  THE  EVOLUTION  OF  FRANCE. 

ation,  and  that  the  protectorate  exercised  by  France 
over  the  Holy  Places  would  not  be,  m  any  way,  dis- 
cussed. ^  At  the  Congress  he  was  careful  not  to  provoke 
an  "  offer  of  compensation,"  but  forewarned  the  pleni- 
potentiaries, and  Lord  Salisbury  in  particular,  of  the 
contingency  of  French  intervention  in  Tunis.  The  neu- 
trality of  England  was  thus  secured  for  us,  and  when, 
later  on,  our  troops  disembarked  in  Tunis,  the  threats 
of  Italy  awoke  no  echo  in  Europe  and  our  action 
aroused  no  resistance  on  the  part  of  the  other  powers. 
M.  Waddington  intervened  again  on  behalf  of  Greece, 
whose  representatives  were  admitted,  on  his  demand,  to 
a  share  in  the  sessions  of  the  Congress.  It  is  one  of  the 
traditions  in  France  to  uphold  the  Greeks.  Some 
momentary  ill-temper  was  displayed,  on  this  point.  It 
was  said  that  we  had  raised  the  G-reek  question.  But  as 
the  Greek  question  formed  one  chapter  in  the  Eastern 
Question,  and  certainly  not  the  least  important,  it  was 
impossible  to  reopen  the  latter  without  touching  upon 
the  former.  From  the  moment  that  the  Congress 
recognized  the  independence  of  Servia,  Roumania,  and 
Montenegro,  the  least  that  it  could  do  for  Greece  was 
to  give  her  "  expectations  "  and  a  promise  of  mediation 
between  her  and  Turkey.     A  protocol  of  the  Congress 

1  England  had  been  forced  to  consent  to  this ;  it  is  said  that,  unable  to 
flatter  herself  that  she  could  obtain  Egypt,  she  had  secretly  proposed  to 
Austria  an  understanding  by  which  they  were  to  exercise  a  sort  of  joint 
moral  protectorate  over  the  Ottoman  Empire;  if  this  be  a  fact,  it  is  not 
surprising  that  the  Emperor  Francis  Joseph  and  Count  Andrassy  should 
have  repelled  so  impudent  a  proposition.  In  any  case,  England  directly 
procured  for  herself  "  a  choice  morsel."  On  June  4  a  secret  treaty  was 
signed  between  her  government  and  that  of  the  Sultan ;  it  had  reference 
to  the  island  of  Cyprus,  which  was  immediately  occupied.  The  terms  of 
this  treaty  were  peculiar  in  this  respect,  —  that  England  stipulated  for 
reforms  "  in  the  Asiatic  provinces  of  the  Ottoman  Empire,"  in  compensa- 
tion for  the  administration  of  the  island  of  Cyprus,  which  she  consented 
to  undertake. 


THE  CONGRESS   OF  BERLIN.  99 

recommended  to  both  a  speedy  understanding  for  the 
settling  of  the  boundary  lines.  The  understanding  did 
not  take  place.  Thessaly  and  Epirus  gave  occasion, 
on  the  part  of  Greece,  for  certain  claims  which  Turkey 
would  not  admit  under  any  pretext  whatsoever. 

Moreover,  this  was  not  the  only  disappointment  to 
which  the  Congress  of  Berlin  gave  rise.  Without  going 
so  far  as  to  assert  that  the  Congress  seemed  to  have 
been  convoked  "for  the  purpose  of  breeding  quarrels 
between  all  the  great  powers,  and  even  among  many  of 
the  smaller  powers,"^  it  must  be  conceded  that  this 
"first  partition  of  Turkey  "^  did  not  seem  to  be  of  a 
nature  to  assure  the  general  peace.  Austria  could  only 
occupy  Bosnia  and  Herzegovina,  as  she  had  been  au- 
thorized to  do,  after  a  desperate  struggle,  in  which  her 
adversaries  were  morally  supported  by  Hungary ;  the 
Albanian  populations  granted  to  Servia  and  Monte- 
negro revolted ;  an  insurrection  broke  out  in  Macedonia, 
and  another  in  Roumelia.  Repeated  alterations  were 
necessary  ;  a  conference  assembled  in  Berlin,  on  June 
16,  1880,  to  complete  what  the  Congress  had  sketched 
out,  and  to  modify  the  defective  parts  of  its  work ;  it 
only  half  succeeded.  In  order  to  execute  the  decision 
which  gave  to  Montenegro  the  little  port  of  Dulcigno, 
it  became  necessary  to  assemble  considerable  inter- 
national forces  in  the  Adriatic  ;  the  "  naval  demonstra- 
tion "  of  Dulcigno  was  reckoned  among  the  most  ridicu- 
lous of  happenings,  and  emphasized  the  incomplete  and 
precarious  character  of  the  concessions  made  on  both 
sides.  As  for  the  Hellenes,  they  were  dropped  without 
much  sense  of  shame,  after  they  had  received  a  great 
deal  of  attention,  and  France  was  guilty  of  the  awk- 

1  Hippeau,  Histoire  Diplomatique  de  la  Troisihne  R4publique. 

2  Albert  Vaudal,  Cours  de  I'^cole  des  Sciences  Folitiques. 


100  THE  EVOLUTION    OF  FRANCE. 

wardness  of  causing  them  a  great  disappointment  after 
having  given  them  a  great  deal  of  hope.^ 

It  Avill  be  useful  for  us  to  cast  a  rapid  glance  at  the 
state  of  Europe  immediately  after  the  Congress  of  Ber- 
lin. It  happens  that  at  certain  turning-points  of  the 
century,  nations  meet  like  promenaders  in  a  garden ; 
then  it  is  that  groups  are  recast,  and,  for  a  moment,  all 
combinations  become  possible.  Such  was  the  case  with 
the  Europe  of  1879. 


1  After  having  been  upheld  by  M.  Waddington  and  by  M.  de  Freycinet, 
the  Hellenes  found  themselves  rather  neglected  by  M.  Barthelemy  Saint- 
Hilaire,  as  it  appears  from  three  circulars  dated  December  24,  28,  1880, 
and  January  7,  1881;  these  circulars  were  unexpectedly  published  by  the 
Presse  of  Vienna,  and  the  Morning  Post  of  London,  and  gave  rise  to 
parliamentary  debate  provoked  by  M.  Antonin  Proust.  Russia  and 
England,  who  were  ready  to  uphold  Greece,  in  company  with  France,  felt 
our  unjustifiable  retreat  with  much  keenness,  and  the  British  government 
gave  publicity  to  two  despatches,  from  the  Blue  Book,  of  its  representa- 
tive in  Athens,  one  of  which,  dated  August,  1880,  was  couched  in  these 
terms:  "  France's  disposition  to  abandon,  or  at  least  to  modify  the  active 
part  which  the  government  of  the  Republic  was  to  take  with  the  object  of 
settling  the  Greek  frontiers  in  conformity  with  the  decisions  of  the  Con- 
ference of  Berlin,  —  that  disposition  being  made  evident  by  the  tone  of  the 
French  press,  by  the  delay  in  the  arrival  here  of  the  French  oflScers 
entrusted  with  reorganizing  the  Greek  army,  by  the  sudden  retreat  of  the 
French  squadron,  and  by  the  non-fulfilment  of  the  promise  made  by  the 
French  government  to  furnish  thirty  thousand  rifles  to  Greece,  —  has 
caused  a  feeling  of  disappointment  throughout  that  country."  In  fact, 
not  only  had  the  Thomassin  mission  set  out,  under  the  pretext  that  the 
German  government  was  furnishing,  at  the  same  time,  officers  to  Turkey 
and  that  a  collision  might  occur ;  but  when  Greece  asked  permission  to 
buy  munitions  of  war,  ]\L  de  Freycinet  informed  his  war  colleague  (con- 
fidential letter  of  July  27, 1880)  "that  by  reason  of  the  interpretations  to 
which  this  act  might  give  rise,  at  that  moment,  the  President  of  the 
Republic  and  the  Council  of  Ministers  thought  it  preferable  to  abstain." 
It  was  afterwards  learned  that  the  contractors  employed  by  Greece  were 
buying,  in  our  arsenals,  rejected  material;  the  government  cancelled  the 
sales,  and  stopped  the  vessels  when  they  sailed.  This  whole  incident 
is  significant,  in  that  it  shows  an  anxiety  to  preserve  the  peace  which, 
though  very  laudable  in  great  things,  became,  when  applied  to  details  of 
such  secondary  importance,  greatly  exaggerated,  and  came  near  incurring 
the  risk  of  compromising  the  national  dignity. 


THE  CONGRESS   OF  BERLIN.  101 

In  Germany,  M.  de  Bismarck  was  pursuing  the  series 
of  his  evolutions.  Down  to  1866  he  had  associated 
himself  with  the  conservatives  for  the  purpose  of  per- 
fecting the  military  power  of  Prussia;  after  1866  he 
had  formed  an  alliance  with  the  democracy  and  estab- 
lished universal  suffrage,  with  the  object  of  having 
within  his  reach  a  truly  national  opinion  to  which  he 
could  appeal  at  need.  From  1870  to  1878  he  had  gov- 
erned with  the  liberal  party  against  the  ultramontanes ; 
he  now  made  approaches  to  the  latter,  with  the  purpose 
of  securing  the  triumph  of  his  political  economy,  and 
of  waging  war  against  socialism.  The  resistance  of 
the  Reichstag  had  in  store  for  him  a  series  of  surprises 
and  vexations.  After  the  alarm  of  1875,  he  had  sud- 
denly accustomed  himself  to  the  idea  of  a  France  of  the 
first  magnitude,  which  should  continue  to  figure  in  the 
constellation  of  the  great  powers  ;  soon  he  would  be 
seen  negotiating  with  Leo  XIII.,  and  ordering  his  rep- 
resentatives at  Constantinople  to  keep  step  with  French 
diplomacy. 

England  underwent  a  salutary  crisis ;  Lord  Beacons- 
field's  "  imperial  policy "  had  completed  its  ravages ; 
war  had  been  begun  in  India  and  in  South  Africa ;  the 
Afghans  and  the  Zulus  did  not  seem  disposed  to  give 
up  a  struggle  which  was  turning  to  their  advantage  ; 
in  Burmah  there  were  murders  to  avenge.  The  situa- 
tion was  very  grave  in  Ireland,  and  relations  with  Rus- 
sia were  more  strained  than  ever.  It  required  some 
courage  on  Mr.  Gladstone's  part  to  resume  power  under 
such  conditions.  Upheld  by  the  good  sense  of  the 
masses,  he  restored  liberty  to  the  Transvaal,  evacu- 
ated Afghanistan,  and  became  reconciled  with  Russia 
(1881). 

The    Empire   of    the    Tzars   was   also    traversing   a 


102  THE  EVOLUTION  OF  FRANCE. 

troubled  period, —  nihilist  plots,  assassinations  of  high 
functionaries,  bloody  disturbances,  demonstrations  of 
students,  followed  each  other  in  tragic  succession.  The 
old  bureaucratic  party,  hardened,  given  to  spying,  full 
of  abuses,  and  devoid  of  justice,  had  succeeded  in  1863 
in  stopping  the  reformative  progress  of  the  early  years 
of  Alexander  II. 's  reign,  and  from  that  time  forth  it 
was  in  control.  And,  on  the  other  hand,  in  Asia  there 
was  a  continual  march  forward  of  the  Russian  generals, 
exceeding  their  instructions  and  involving  the  action 
of  the  government  without  too  greatly  pledging  its  re- 
sponsibility towards  Europe.^  As  for  Italy,  she  bore 
away  from  the  Berlin  Congress  only  jealous  regrets. 
The  attitude  of  Leo  XIII.  and  of  Bismarck,  which 
alternately  flattered  the  Quirinal  and  the  Vatican,  dis- 
turbed her,  and  in  spite  of  the  rejection  by  the  French 
Chambers  of  the  Franco-Italian  treaty  of  Commerce, 
negotiated  by  the  ministry  of  May  16,  under  conditions 
so  favorable  to  Italy,  Francophobe  sentiments  were  not 
yet  developing  in  the  Peninsula. 

The  situation  of  France  seemed  much  more  favorable 
than  that  of  her  neighbors.  She  had  at  her  head  an 
illustrious  soldier,  all  surrounded  with  the  glory  and 
the  prestige  that  monarchies  appreciate  most  of  all:  the 
glory  and  the  prestige  which  are  harvested  on  the  field 
of  battle.  She  had  just  given,  at  the  same  time,  proofs 
of  her  political  sagacity  at  the  Congress  of  Berlin,  and 
of  her  incredible  national  vitality  at  the  Paris  Exposi- 

1  It  was  in  this  manner  that  General  Tchernaieff  had  captured  Tash- 
kend  ;  that  Samarcand  had  been  annexed  ;  that  Skobeleff  had  conquered 
Khokand  ;  that,  in  1871,  General  Kolpakoff  had  occupied  Kouldja  just  as 
his  government  was  offering  her  services  to  China  to  help  her  chastise  the 
rebels  of  that  province,  and  then  kept  Kouldja. 

On  March  4, 187(5,  the  Tzar  decreed  the  annexation  of  the  Khanate  of 
Khokand,  which  was  only  seven  degrees  from  the  frontier  of  the  Punjaub. 


THE  CONGRESS   OF  BERLIN.  103 

tion  ;  she  had  managed  to  realize,  by  maintaining  the 
Due  Decazes  at  the  Quai  d'Orsay  for  four  years  in 
succession,  a  governmental  stability  which  had  not  been 
expected  from  the  Republic.  All  this  made  an  impres- 
sion upon  Europe,  which  had  not  understood  the  lesson 
of  May  16,  and  did  not  feel  how  thoroughly  this  pros- 
perous situation  was,  at  the  same  time,  provisional. 
It  became  necessary  to  resume  the  march  of  progress, 
and  that  the  Republic  should  accomplish  its  work,  A 
government  is  not  stable  if  the  men  who  impart  to  it 
its  life  are  not  inspired  by  the  principles  upon  which 
they  ought,  logically,  to  depend.  But  monarchical 
Europe  did  not  perceive  this  necessity.  The  events 
which  followed  were  a  sad  surprise  to  her.  The  elec- 
tion of  M.  Gr^vy,  the  instability  of  the  Ministers  of 
Foreign  Affairs,  the  violent  language  of  the  deputies, 
the  weeding  out  of  functionaries,  the  expulsion  of  re- 
ligious bodies:  she  saw  no  rational  motive  for  these 
things ;  it  seemed  to  her  that  the  government  was  los- 
ing its  hold,  that  men's  minds  were  going  astray,  and 
in  the  stormy  audacity  of  the  municipal  council  of  Paris 
she  perceived  the  threat  of  a  second  Commune,  more 
to  be  dreaded,  and  better  obeyed. 

The  war  in  Tunis  set  us  at  variance  with  Italy,  and 
Egyptian  affairs  with  England ;  in  addition,  there 
was  the  Hartmann  affair,  which  rendered  Russia  ill- 
disposed. ^  For  our  diplomacy  it  was  a  period  of 
effacement,  and  of  incessant  difficulties  besides.  The 
representatives  of  France  were  inclined  to  exaggerate 

1  It  was  a  question  of  a  refugee  accused  of  participation  in  the  attempt 
at  assassination  at  Moscow ;  the  identity  was  not  established ;  we  refused 
extradition.  The  departure  of  Prince  Orloff,  which  coincided  with  this 
affair,  caused  it  to  be  supposed  that  the  imperial  government  was  angry 
with  us  about  this ;  but  Hartmann  betook  himself  to  London,  and  was  not 
farther  disturbed  there  (1881) . 


104  THE  EVOLUTION  OF  FRANCE. 

the  prudence  which  was  enjoined  on  them  from  Paris, 
because  they  themselves  doubted  the  stability  of  those 
in  whose  names  they  spoke.  Patriotically,  they  tried 
to  diminish,  at  least,  the  effect  of  the  minor  measures 
which  made  the  other  nations  uneasy,  and  to  impress 
upon  their  foreign  offices  the  idea  that  France  did  not 
consider  that  republican  doctrines  formed  a  proper 
object  of  export  commerce  on  the  part  of  her  govern- 
ment. They  were  not  always  thoroughly  well  seconded 
in  their  task  by  the  young  men  who  fulfilled  the  func- 
tions of  secretaries  and  attaches  under  them,  and  some 
of  whom,  who  had  remained  in  the  career  under  a 
government  which  they  served  with  regret,  sometimes 
showed  themselves  oblivious  of  the  respect  which  was 
due  from  them  to  the  head  of  the  State  and  to  his 
ministers.  A  diplomatic  and  consular  reform  was 
carried  out  by  M.  de  Freycinet,  concerning  the  con- 
ditions of  entrance  and  of  advancement,  as  well  as  the 
members  of  the  staff,  and  bore  its  fruits.  ^ 

In  conclusion,  one  last  source  of  difficulties  arose 
from  the  fact  that  not  everything  was  transacted 
through  our  agents.  In  a  debate  which  took  place  in 
the  Chamber,  M.  Pascal  Duprat  pointed  out  as  a  cause 
of  uneasiness  and  distraction  the  current  idea  that  "  the 
government  does  not  govern  entirely,  that  exalted 
influences,  more  or  less  legitimate,  are  placed  by  its 
side,"  and  Gambetta,  being  thus  put  on  his  defence, 
retorted  by  a  heated  and  ringing  impromptu  speech. 

1  It  had  been  long  decided  upon,  in  principle :  the  Committee  on 
Appropriations  of  1872  had  given  its  attention  to  this  matter;  later  on, 
the  Due  Decazes  appointed  a  committee  which  worked  out  the  regulation, 
called  the  regulation  of  1877 ;  but  the  first  reform  suffered  still  further 
delay,  in  spite  of  incessant  demands,  and  of  the  fact  that  the  discussion  of 
the  appropriations  for  Foreign  Affairs  gave  rise,  every  year,  to  very  lively, 
and  sometimes  just  attacks. 


THE  CONGRESS   OF  BERLIN.  105 

The  accusation  was  not  without  foundation.  The 
meddling  was  plain,  but  inevitable.  At  that  moment, 
France  regarded  Gambetta  as  the  real  head  of  the 
State  ;  the  confidence  of  the  nation  was,  little  by  little, 
thrusting  him  into  power,  and  he  had  about  him,  with- 
out even  the  need  of  any  encouragement  on  his  part, 
a  sort  of  government  in  embryo,  and  a  budding  diplo- 
macy, alongside  the  official  diplomacy  and  government. 
This  distrust  on  the  part  of  Europe  neutralized,  in 
great  measure,  the  happy  results  which  the  attitude  of 
France  at  the  Congress  of  Berlin  should  have  produced ; 
it  ended  in  the  formation  of  the  Triple  Alliance.  A 
few  years  later,  the  existence  of  this  anti-republican 
league  was  indiscreetly  proclaimed  at  Montecitorio  by 
M.  Mancini,  Minister  of  Foreign  Affairs  of  Italy  ;  the 
fact  of  its  formation  had  disturbed  political  circles ;  at 
Budapest  and  Westminster  it  had  created  anxiety, 
and,  at  last,  the  Due  de  Broglie  interrogated  M. 
Challemel-Lacour,  who  then  presided  over  our  foreign 
relations.  The  minister's  reply  was  full  of  acuteness 
and  urbanity,  as  well  as  of  pacific  pride  ;  he  terminated 
his  speech  in  these  words :  "  A  nation  like  ours,  a  coun- 
try like  France,  which  has  been  conquered,  and  which 
is  recovering  itself  ;  a  country  which  finds  in  its  energy, 
in  its  will,  in  its  toil,  in  its  indomitable  hope,  the  means 
of  maintaining  itself  upright,  in  the  rank  which  the 
centuries  have  assigned  to  it ;  a  country  which,  on 
emerging  from  repeated  and  terrible  crises,  is  resolutely 
building  itself  up  again,  and  which,  after  having  ex- 
hausted the  divers  forms  of  monarchy,  is  building  it- 
self up  upon  foundations  conformable  to  its  genius  and 
to  its  needs  but  new  to  the  bosom  of  monarchical 
Europe ;  a  country  which  is  condemned,  by  its  geo- 
graphical position,  to  keep  up  at  great  cost  a  consider- 


106  THE  EVOLUTION  OF  FRANCE. 

able  defensive  force,  and  which  is  compelled,  by  the 
very  nature  of  things,  to  be  always  on  the  alert,  and 
which  is  surrounded  by  States  which  are  young  and, 
consequently,  ambitious  and  prone  to  take  offence, — 
such  a  country  must  not  feel  astonished  if  the  world 
cherishes  various  dispositions  towards  it.  It  would  be 
very  wrong  to  try  to  ignore  the  fact,  and  there  would 
be  danger  in  misapprehending  it.  But,  gentlemen, 
these  dispositions  may  change,  and  we  hope  that  they 
will  change.  Yes,  we  are  firmly  confident  that  they 
will  be  modified,  in  time ;  we  believe  that  the  strength- 
ening of  our  institutions,  the  wisdom  of  our  conduct, 
the  precision  and  frankness  of  our  policy,  and  the  good 
use  which  we  shall  know  how  to  make  of  the  parlia- 
mentary or  other  liberties  which  our  institutions  assure 
to  us,  —  we  hope  that  all  these  things  may  modify  the 
dispositions  of  which  I  speak,  and  that,  perhaps,  more 
speedily  than  we  suppose."  ^  This  programme  of 
"smiling  perseverance"  was,  after  all,  that  of  our 
ambassadors  and  our  ministers ;  they  devoted  them- 
selves to  remaining  faithful  to  it,  and  contributed  not 
a  little  to  the  realization  of  M.  Challemel-Lacour's 
heartfelt  prayer.     France  will  never  forget  it. 

1  Speech  of  M.  Challemel-Lacoiir  in  the  Senate  (May  1, 1883). 


TUNIS  AND  EGYPT.  107 


CHAPTER  V. 

TUNIS  AND  EGYPT. 

A  Forced  Conquest.  —  Measures  well  taken  and  badly  appreciated.  —  The 
Treaty  of  Bardo.  —  Lies  and  Calumnies.  —  France  in  Egypt. — The 
Condominium.  —  Arabi  and  the  Nationalists.  —  Tergiversations  of 
France:  the  English  bombard  Alexandria  and  occupy  Cairo.  —  The 
"Great  Minister." 

Our  colonial  conquests  cannot  stand  without  a  pro- 
logue, the  comprehension  of  which  is  indispensable  for 
those  who  wish,  with  adequate  knowledge  of  the  situa- 
tion, to  estimate  results  and  weigh  responsibilities. 
Unfortunately,  the  public  too  often  takes  its  seat  only 
at  the  beginning  of  the  first  act,  and,  through  having 
missed  the  prologue,  misunderstands  the  play. 

In  all  the  distant  regions  where  the  Republic  has 
founded  its  rule  or  consolidated  its  establishments,  it 
has  acted  in  virtue  of  title-deeds  which  it  was  more  or 
less  to  our  advantage  to  enforce,  but  whose  antiquity 
or  authenticity  could  not  be  doubted  ;  intervention  has 
generally  been  the  consequence  of  anterior  events  which 
public  opinion  committed  the  mistake  of  ignoring,  but 
which  the  government  and  the  parties  interested  took 
good  care  not  to  allow  to  lapse  into  oblivion. 

The  fall  of  the  Bey's  government  in  Tunis  ^  —  so  far 

1  At  the  head  of  the  works  which  should  be  consulted  on  Tunis  must 
be  quoted  that  of  Baron  d'Estournelles  de  Constant,  minister  plenipoten- 
tiary, deputy  from  Sarthe,  which  he  published  under  the  pen-name  of 
P.  H.  X. ;  its  title  is :  La  Politique  Fran^aise  en  Tunisie .  le  Protectorat 
et  ses  Origines.  Paris,  Plon,  1891.  The  work  of  M.  Narcisse  Faucon  must 
also  be  cited,  La  Tunisie  avant  et  depuis  V Occupation  Fran(;aise,  for  which 
M.  Jules  Ferry  wrote  a  Preface. 


108  THE  EVOLUTION  OF  FRANCE. 

as  it  was  an  independent  government  —  was  inevitable ; 
the  necessity  for  its  abrogation  has  been  summed  up  in 
the  phrase,  "  The  Beys  could  neither  throw  off  our  in- 
fluence, nor  obey  it,"  which  is  strictly  true.  From  the 
day  when  she  definitely  established  herself  in  Algeria, 
France  could  not  permit  Tunis  —  that  prolongation  of 
Algeria  —  to  become  a  hot-bed  of  anti-French  propa- 
ganda, and,  on  the  other  hand,  the  combined  efforts  of 
Turkey,  England,  and  Italy  were  bound,  of  necessity, 
to  bring  about  that  result. 

"The  Porte,"  says  M.  Guizot  in  his  MSmoires^  "for 
a  long  time,  cherished  the  desire  to  bring  about  in 
Tunis  a  revolution  analogous  to  that  which  it  effected 
in  earlier  days,  in  Tripoli,  that  is  to  say,  to  deprive  the 
regency  of  Tunis  of  whatever  hereditary  independence 
it  had  won,  and  to  transform  the  Bey  of  Tunis  into  an 
ordinary  pasha.  Almost  every  year  a  Turkish  squadron 
emerged  from  the  Sea  of  Marmora,  to  make  a  more  or 
less  menacing  demonstration  on  the  coast  of  Tunis.  It 
was  of  the  greatest  importance  to  us  that  such  a  plan 
should  not  succeed;  instead  of  a  weak  neighbor,  such 
as  the  Bey  of  Tunis,  whose  interest  lay  in  living  on 
good  terms  with  us,  we  should  have  had  on  our  eastern 
frontier,  in  Africa,  the  Ottoman  Empire  itself,  with  its 
persistent  claims  against  our  conquest  and  its  alliances 
in  Europe.  .  .  .  Every  time  that  a  Turkish  squadron 
approached  or  threatened  to  approach  Tunis,  our  ves- 
sels sailed  for  that  coast,  with  orders  to  protect  the  Bey 
against  every  undertaking  on  the  part  of  the  Turks." 

These  lines  of  M.  Guizot  are  significant,  and  bear 
witness  to  the  ulterior  designs  which  the  monarchy 
of  July  already  entertained  with  regard  to  Tunis. 
Louis  Philippe  received  the  visit  of  the  Bey  Achmet, 
who  astonished  the  French  by  his  Oriental  luxury ;  a 


TUNIS  AND  EGYPT.  109 

military  mission  was  sent  to  him,  to  reorganize  his 
army.  When,  later  on,  a  contingent  from  the  Bey 
took  part  in  the  Crimean  expedition,  it  was  not  out 
of  affection  for  the  Ottoman  rule. 

England  had  other  motives  for  intervening,  less  le- 
gitimate, but  no  less  pressing ;  her  interest,  of  course, 
counselled  her  to  prevent  other  nations  from  doing  in 
the  Mediterranean  what  she  had  done  at  Gibraltar  and 
at  Malta,  that  is  to  say,  of  seizing  one  of  those  posi- 
tions which  command  the  principal  courses  followed 
by  vessels,  and  give  to  those  who  hold  them  a  prepon- 
derance to  which  they  could  not  otherwise  lay  claim.  As 
for  Italy,  she  counted  very  numerous  representatives  in 
Tunis,  who  had  shared  her  ambitions  and  her  anxieties, 
and  who  had  worked,  according  to  their  strength,  for 
its  unification.  Having  become  a  great  power,  it  was 
easy  to  foresee  that  she  would  show  her  interest  in  them. 
Were  not  they  securing  to  her  the  means  of  founding  a 
colony,  without  expending  too  much,  or  exposing  her- 
self, and  of  thus  imitating  the  other  great  powers,  her 
neighbors  or  her  rivals  ? 

England's  representative  in  Tunis,  Mr.  Wood,  was 
one  of  those  prudent  and  audacious  agents  who  live 
in  a  state  of  lying  in  wait  for  a  conquest  to  effect,  an 
advantage  to  seize,  and  who  would  consider  their  career 
badly  fulfilled  if  it  were  not  summed  up  in  some  ag- 
grandizement of  territory  or  of  power  for  their  country. 
The  ideal  of  the  French  agent  is,  too  often,  negative ; 
he  aspires  to  "  cause  no  trouble  "  to  his  government, 
not  to  "  get  into  difficulties,"  and  his  hierarchical  supe- 
riors encourage  him  in  this  attitude  by  the  fear  which 
they  exhibit  of  having  to  face  an  unforeseen  responsi- 
bility, or  settle  a  delicate  case.  England,  on  the  con- 
trary, assures  to  her  representatives  to  whom  she  confides 


110  THE  EVOLUTION  OF  FRANCE. 

distant  posts  an  independence  and  a  stability  which  en- 
able them  to  act  freely,  without  asking  incessant  and 
minute  instructions  from  London.  The  Foreign  Office 
rejoices  in  their  initiative,  and  takes  good  care  not  to 
impede  their  action ;  and  if  circumstances  compel  it 
to  disavow  excess  of  zeal  on  the  part  of  a  function- 
ary, one  thing  is  certain,  —  that  this  disavowal  will 
be  magnificently  compensated.  We  have  frequently, 
and  in  all  parts  of  the  world,  met  such  athwart  our 
path,  and  it  must  be  confessed  that  they  have  managed 
to  inflict  more  than  one  check  and  mortification  upon 
our  policy. 

In  Tunis,  Mr.  Wood  first  busied  himself  with  tight- 
ening the  bonds  of  vassalage  which  were  supposed  to 
unite  the  Bey  to  the  Sultan ;  to  place  Tunis  again 
under  the  yoke  of  Constantinople  was  to  keep  her  at 
a  distance  from  France.  Then  he  made  advances  to 
the  Italian  consul,  and  made  use  of  his  colleague  the 
better  to  combat  us.  He  urged  him  on,  trying  to 
compromise  him,  and  to  make  him  take  up  some  posi- 
tion which  should  involve  the  future.  Circumstances 
seemed  to  favor  his  designs  :  France  was  not  in  a  state 
to  keep  an  effective  watch  upon  her  Mediterranean  in- 
terests ;  she  was  at  war  with  Germany,  and  fortune  was 
deserting  her  arms.  The  institution  of  the  international 
financial  commission,  which  had  seemed  certain  to  in- 
jure her,  preserved  her,  on  the  contrary,  from  the  loss 
of  her  influence  ;  the  statu  quo  was  maintained  by  the 
mere  fact  of  the  international  character  which  the  con- 
trol of  Tunisian  finances  had  assumed,  and  when,  after 
the  war,  Italy,  judging  the  moment  to  be  favorable, 
threatened  armed  intervention,  England  decided  that 
matters  had  altered  their  aspect,  and  that,  perhaps,  it 
was  more  urgent  to  hinder  the  encroachments  of  tri- 


TUNIS  AND  EGYPT.  Ill 

umphant  Italy  than  those  of  conquered  France.  So 
she  interposed.  Moreover,  she  perceived  the  possi- 
bility of  more  desirable  acquisitions,  and  this  perspec- 
tive disposed  her  delegates  at  the  Congress  of  Berlin 
to  receive  with  good- will  the  overtures  of  M.  Wadding- 
ton.  A  little  later,  Mr.  Wood  was  recalled ;  feeling 
that  it  had  been  cheated,  the  Italian  government  sent 
to  Tunis  M.  Maccio,  and  gave  him  orders  to  make 
the  effort  to  recover  lost  ground.  He  found  there 
M.  Roustan,  who,  since  1875,  had  represented  France, 
and  had  been  preparing  the  way  for  her. 

Contest  was  soon  forced  upon  us  as  a  necessity :  the 
years  1880  and  1881  passed  in  open  anarchy ;  both 
weakness  and  ill-will  reigned  on  the  part  of  the  Bey, 
and  of  his  ministers ;  the  Kroumirs  in  revolt  made 
frequent  incursions ;  everything  augured  a  speedy  re- 
vival of  Mussulman  fanaticism  coinciding  with  an  ad- 
vance of  the  Panislamic  party ;  bloody  episodes,  like 
the  massacre  of  the  Flatters  column,  indicated  the 
danger  of  the  French  allowing  themselves  to  be  sur- 
prised. A  prompt  and  decisive  intervention  might  pre- 
vent many  evils  in  the  future.  The  government,  when 
enlightened  as  to  the  situation,  had  no  right  to  hesi- 
tate. It  captured  the  Chambers  with  a  demand  for  an 
appropriation,  unfortunately  insufficient.  The  almost 
unanimous  vote  ^  of  Parliament,  the  friendly  attitude  of 
Germany,  the  very  faultless  attitude  of  England,  re- 
lieved our  diplomacy  of  all  anxiety ;  Italy,  discouraged, 
recalled  M.  Maccio,  and  public  opinion  transferred  its 
wrath  to  Minister  Cairoli,  who  was  overthrown. 

General  Farre,  Minister  of  War,  very  sagaciously 
ordered  preparations  which  were  criticised  because  they 

1  Fifty  abstained  from  voting  on  the  Right,  and  M.  Delafosse  stated 
objections  in  the  name  of  several  voters. 


112  THE  EVOLUTION   OF  FRANCE. 

appeared  to  be  out  of  proportion  with  the  effort  which 
was  to  be  undertaken.  The  surrender  was,  in  fact,  of 
the  promptest  description ;  Bizerta  was  occupied ;  the 
Bey,  surprised  and  put  out  of  countenance  by  the  in- 
difference and  the  refusals  to  receive  his  protest  which 
he  encountered  in  Europe,  signed  the  treaty  on  May  12, 
1881.  M.  Roustan  was  appointed  Minister  Resident. 
Two  grave  mistakes  were  then  committed :  we  con- 
sented that  the  French  troops  should  not  enter  Tunis, 
and  the  moral  effect  produced  upon  the  Arabs  by  this 
unfortunate  concession  was  considerable  ;  in  the  second 
place,  the  expeditionary  force  was  hastily  sent  home, 
without  its  having  been  taken  into  consideration  that 
the  Bey's  surrender  did  not  imply  that  all  danger  had 
been  averted  in  the  South ;  in  this  manner,  the  effects 
of  the  prudent  conduct  on  the  part  of  the  Minister  of 
War  were  annulled. 

In  spite  of  the  fact  that  circumstances  appeared  so 
favorable,  it  was  not  without  a  certain  uneasiness  that 
the  government  had  resigned  itself  to  making  the  con- 
quest of  Tunis.  It  is  impossible  to  study  the  brief  his- 
tory of  this  expedition,  even  in  a  superficial  manner, 
without  perceiving  that  its  principal  interest  lay  in 
the  manner  in  which  the  new  political  and  military 
machinery  of  the  French  Republic  would  work  on  this 
occasion.  Herein,  precisely,  lay  the  cause  for  uneasi- 
ness felt  by  the  members  of  the  Cabinet.  The  ques- 
tion of  war  or  peace  is  one  of  the  most  delicate  which 
can  be  raised  under  a  parliamentary  system  of  govern- 
ment. In  fact,  it  is  difficult  to  find  in  a  Parliament 
sufficient  patriotism  and  self-abnegation  absolutely  to 
silence  the  interests  of  party  (unless,  of  course,  it  is 
a  question  of  a  truly  national  struggle,  in  defence 
of  the  soil  of  the  fatherland).     On   the    other   hand. 


TUNIS  AND  EGYPT.  113 

affairs  of  war  require  prompt,  secret  action,  decisions, 
which  cannot  be  handled  by  a  numerous  assembly ;  the 
deputies  find  themselves  called  upon  to  give  or  refuse 
their  approbation  to  the  acts  of  the  government,  and 
the  freedom  of  their  vote  is  hampered  by  this  very 
fact.  Approbation  entails  their  responsibility  in  a 
manner  which  may  be  contrary  to  their  conscience; 
disapprobation  incurs  the  risk  of  augmenting  the  forces 
of  the  enemy  by  decreasing  those  of  their  own  country. 
A  strong  minority  pronouncing  against  a  war  loan  sows 
distrust  in  the  ranks  of  the  national  army,  while  the 
enemy  is,  by  that  very  fact,  encouraged  to  resistance. 
Such  inconveniences  are  avoidable  only  if  a  sentiment 
superior  to  parties  rules  the  Assembly.  Such  would 
have  been  the  case,  in  France,  if  it  had  been  a  ques- 
tion of  Germany  ;  such  could  not  be  the  case  from  the 
moment  when  Tunis  was  in  question. 

It  was  difficult  to  criticise  the  treaty  whose  terms 
the  government  submitted  to  the  Chambers  ;  it  perpet- 
uated important  results  acquired  without  great  effort ; 
the  policy  which  had  inspired  it  was  vulnerable  upon 
one  point  only,  —  it  might  be  claimed,  with  some  show 
of  reason,  that  the  conquest  of  Tunis  would  bring  all 
Europe  down  upon  us.  The  opposition  did  not  fail  to 
give  battle  on  that  ground,  and,  for  the  first  time,  men 
heard  formulated,  in  the  French  tribune,  that  contra- 
diction between  the  colonial  policy  and  the  continental 
policy  which  was  destined,  in  the  future,  to  cause  so 
many  vexations  to  our  colonists,  by  leading  us  to  sacri- 
fice the  interests  of  some  portion  of  our  empire  beyond 
the  sea  to  the  desire  to  oblige  a  friend,  or  to  the  fear  of 
displeasing  a  grumbler. 

The  attacks  of  the  opposition  found  an  unexpected 
echo  in  public  opinion.     The  press  of  the  Right,  and 


114  THE  EVOLUTION  OF  FRANCE. 

that  of  the  Extreme  Left,  set  their  wits  to  work  to  dis- 
cover in  the  expedition  "  shady  secrets."  There  was 
talk  of  jobbery  and  rotten  business,  and  while  Germany, 
Austria,  and  Spain  were  sending  congratulations  to  the 
French  government,  General  Farre  and  M.  Barthdlemy 
Saint- Hilaire  saw  themselves  scoffed  at  and  scorned 
every  day,  in  the  most  offensive  terms,  by  their  fellow- 
countrymen.  ^  They  were  accused  of  betraying  the 
interests  of  their  country  to  the  profit  of  Germany; 
they  were  called  "humble  servants  of  M.  de  Bis- 
marck " ;  there  was  no  sort  of  rudeness  or  folly  which 
was  not  uttered  about  them;  even  serious  men  became 
uneasy.  In  the  Senate,  the  Due  de  Broglie  constituted 
himself  the  interpreter  of  the  rumors  which  represented 
the  government  as  having  decided  to  occupy  Tripoli 
after  Tunis. 

It  was  much  worse  when  it  was  learned  that  the  prin- 
cipal effort  still  remained  to  be  made,  and  that  an 
Arabian  revolt  was  rising  from  the  depths  of  the  South, 
like  the  breath  of  the  simoom,  menacing  not  only  Tunis, 
but  all  our  possessions  in  Algeria.  There  was  talk  of 
abandoning  the  new  conquest,  just  as,  at  the  accession 
of  Louis  Philippe,  there  had  been  talk  of  abandoning 
Algiers.  A  majority  of  thirteen  votes,  which  included 
the  ministers  themselves,  saved  the  protectorate.  And 
just  then  the  elections  were  drawing  near.     An  out- 

1  They  went  so  far  as  to  reproach  the  government  for  not  having  man- 
aged to  associate  England  and  Italy  with  France,  in  a  common  action 
against  the  Bey.  MM.  Clemenceau,  Delafosse,  and  Cuneo  d'Ornano  dis- 
tinguished themselves  by  their  exaggerations,  while  Rochefort,  to  whom 
amnesty  had  just  been  extended,  laughed  immoderately  in  his  journal.  "A 
strange,  wanton,  translunar  thing,"  he  wrote,  "  is,  that  there  are  no 
KLroumirs.  The  Ferry  Cabinet  offered  thirty  thousand  francs  to  any  per- 
son who  would  procure  one  for  it,  that  it  might  exhibit  him  to  the  army." 
And  the  Parisians  began,  ? very  merrily,  to  "search  for  the  Kroumir." 
This  game  was  very  fashionable  on  the  boulevards. 


TUNIS  AND  EGYPT.  115 

break  of  violence  signalized  the  opening  of  the  electoral 
period.  1 

In  the  meanwhile,  our  soldiers  had  courageously  re- 
sumed the  road  of  the  regency  ;  though  more  serious, 
this  second  expedition  was,  nevertheless,  less  bloody 
and  less  costly.^ 

Sfax  was  bombarded  and  taken  ;  Gabds  was  seized, 
then  Kairwan,  the  holy  city,  upon  which  a  concentric 
march  in  three  columns  was  effected.  Soon  the  whole 
country  was  occupied  ;  the  artillery  was  equal  to  its 
task,  and  the  administrative  service  worked  in  such  a 
manner  as  to  inspire  confidence  in  the  future ;  abroad 
specialists  watched  with  interest  this  first  trial  of  our 
new  arms.  Public  opinion  in  France  considered  the 
political  battle  more  instructive  and  more  interesting. 

The  elections  gave  a  powerful  majority  to  the  Jules 

1  "  The  fatal  expedition  to  Tunis,  which  the  government  has  been  glad 
to  envelop  in  obscurity,  has  not  only  had  as  a  consequence  the  general  con- 
flagration of  Africa,  but  has  also  set  all  Europe  against  us,  to  the  great 
joy  of  Germany."  These  words,  taken  from  the  manifesto  published  by 
the  "  deputies  of  Paris,"  MM.  Louis  Blanc,  Barodet,  Cle'menceau,  and  de 
Lanessan,  may  serve  to  give  an  idea  of  the  pitch  to  which  the  electoral 
violences  rose. 

2  The  ministry  was  open  to  attack,  above  all,  for  its  methods  of  pro- 
cedure. The  expedition  cost,  in  all,  four  millions  for  the  first  phase,  and 
13,431,000  francs  for  the  second.  "  Rarely,"  says  M.  d'Estournelles,  "  and 
to-day  it  is  an  incontestable  fact,  was  a  similar  enterprise  less  onerous." 
Thus,  the  serious  criticisms,  like  those  of  M.  Buffet  in  the  Senate,  were 
levelled  not  at  the  sum,  but  at  the  manner  of  procedure ;  transfers  had 
been  effected.  Levies  had  been  made  for  what  was  lacking  for  the  expedi- 
tionary force,  on  the  loans  appropriated  to  the  normal  support  of  the  army 
in  France.  The  government  replied,  that,  while  the  expenses  of  the 
expeditionary  forces  were  greater  than  those  entailed  by  its  maintenance 
in  France,  they  were  not  different  in  nature.  The  Senate  condemned 
M.  Buffet  by  170  votes  against  95.  Such  a  vote  made  an  impression.  Never- 
theless, some  uneasiness  was  felt  with  regard  to  the  government's  theory, 
which  was  dangerous  in  practice ;  for,  with  such  a  system,  the  whole  mili- 
tary appropriation  voted  for  a  state  of  peace  may  be  applied  to  the  state 
of  war,  and  dispense  with  the  sanction  of  Parliament,  only  to  enter  on  a 
struggle  which  may  be  great  with  consequences. 


116  THE  EVOLUTION  OF  FRANCE. 

Ferry  Cabinet,  to  all  appearances,  since  they  collected 
at  the  Palais-Bourbon  454  republican  deputies.  We 
shall  see  what  warrant  these  newly  elected  members 
had  received,  and  how  the  ministry,  far  from  being 
strengthened  thereby,  was  weakened.  But  that  which 
no  one  could  logically  have  expected  was  the  continua- 
tion, so  far  as  Tunis  was  concerned,  of  a  state  of  things 
which  the  agitation  of  the  balloting  had  alone  rendered 
comprehensible  if  not  excusable.  The  press  had  so 
thoroughly  envenomed  the  quarrel  that  the  expedition 
was  turned  into  ridicule.  People  continued  to  look  upon 
it  as  "an  electoral  war."  When,  on  October  28,  1881, 
the  new  Chamber  came  together,  the  president  by 
seniority  rose,  and  asked  for  a  little  silence.  "  He  de- 
sired to  have  read  an  important  telegram  which  the 
government  had  received  from  Tunis."  They  listened. 
"  Kairwan  is  in  our  hands.  The  insurrection  is  on  the 
eve  of  being  extinguished.  We  have  accomplished 
this  without  bloodshed  in  a  few  weeks."  How  was 
this  news  received?  By  a  burst  of  laughter.  The 
president  is  astonished ;  the  laughter  grows  louder. 
Hilarity,  peals  of  laughter,  noisy  hilarity,  the  news- 
papers report.  Some  one  calls  out :  "  The  comedy  has 
turned  out  a  fizzle !  "  The  laughter  was  louder  than 
ever.  Kairwan  fell  heir  to  the  privilege  which  the 
Kroumirs  had  enjoyed  of  amusing  Paris,  and  the  hilar- 
ity lasted  for  several  days.  On  the  Extreme  Left  and 
on  Right,  this  is  a  means,  which  is  not  yet  exhausted,  of 
weakening  the  government.  The  countersign  is  inability 
to  listen  seriously  when  the  name  of  Tunis  is  uttered. 
People  are  still  laughing  on  November  5,  when  M.  Ferry 
has  the  imprudence  to  say:  "We  have  put  down  the 
insurrection  at  Sfax."  They  laugh  when  he  speaks  of 
the  victories  of  Ali-Bey,  when  he  announces  that  the 


TUNIS  AND  EGYPT.  117 

Tunisian  army  has  fought  us.  If  we  refer  to  the  ac- 
counts of  these  memorable  sessions,  there  is  nothing  but 
laughter  at  every  moment :  approving  laughter,  if  it  be 
a  question  of  an  interruption,  or  of  an  attack  from  the 
opposition,  —  laughter  and  ironical  applause;  and  grins, 
if  it  be  a  question  of  a  reassuring  statement  emitted 
by  a  minister.  When  M.  Amagat  ascends  the  tribune, 
on  November  15,  and  makes  his  first  speech  on  the 
Tunisian  question,  the  prescribed  forms  of  speech  are 
lacking  to  describe  the  wild  merriment  which  seizes 
upon  the  Chamber.  At  every  word  the  Journal  Offieiel  re- 
cords :  "  Laughter  and  exclamations,  prolonged  uproar, 
continuous  noise,  increasing  noise,  boisterous  hilarity."  * 
Every  day  the  generals  were  vilified,  and  the  war  ad- 
ministration was  called  incapable  and  venial.  MM.  Cl^- 
menceau  and  Naquet  called  the  expedition  a  "manoeuvre 
of  the  money-market." 2  "What  you  call  a  manoeuvre 
of  the  money-market,"  retorted  Jules  Ferry,  in  indigna- 
tion, "  I  call  a  stroke  of  good  luck  for  France.  Had 
we  refrained  from  it,  there  would  not  have  been  a  suffi- 
cient number  of  just  reproaches,  of  maledictions,  to  dis- 
charge at  us." 

The  attitude  of  the  Italian  press,  the  journey  of  King 
Humbert  to  Vienna,  and  the  demonstrations  of  sym- 
pathy between  Italy  and  Austria  seemed  to  justify 
those  who  insisted  that,  by  entering  Tunis,  we  had 
thrown  Italy  into  the  arms  of  Germany.  We  may  per- 
mit ourselves  to  wonder  whether  all  precautions  had 
been  taken  to  spare  the  susceptibilities  of  the  national 

1  Baron  d'Estournelles  de  Constant,  La  Politique  Fran(^aise  en  Tu- 
nisie. 

2  In  L'Intransigeant,  Rochefort  depicted  "  our  colony  in  Algeria  three- 
quarters  lost,  while  our  soldiers  strew  their  corpses  along  the  roads."  He 
stigmatized  "the  ministerial  idiocy,"  and  called  the  government  "a 
cabinet  of  Natural  History,  a  band  of  swindlers,  imbeciles,  impostors." 


118  THE  EVOLUTION   OF  FRANCE. 

sentiment  in  the  Peninsula,  and  if  even  the  different 
acceptable  solutions  had  been  the  subject  of  a  suffi- 
ciently profound  preliminary  examination.  It  might 
not  have  been  impossible  to  find,  for  Italy,  under  some 
form  or  other,  a  compensation  which  would,  at  least, 
have  softened  her  regrets  and  paralyzed  her  rancor  in 
the  future.  But  the  opposition,  with"  us,  did  not  speak 
that  language  of  moderation,  and  seemed  to  care  little 
to  support  its  course  with  arguments  of  high  value. 
The  most  absurd  accusations,  the  most  improbable 
calumnies,  were  those  which  had  the  best  chance  of 
producing  an  effect  and  causing  the  most  damage. 

Nevertheless,  a  movement  of  evolution  took  shape  in 
the  ranks  of  the  majority ;  it  began  to  feel  grateful  to 
the  government  for  the  responsibilities  which  the  lat- 
ter had  not  been  afraid  to  assume.  But  the  minis- 
try which  it  thought  it  had  received  the  mission  to 
uphold  had  not  been  formed;  it  existed  only  behind 
the  scenes,  and  the  men  who  occupied  the  ministerial 
bench  took  on,  in  the  eyes  of  the  deputies  and  of  their 
constituents,  a  sort  of  vague  aspect  of  usurpers.  They 
were  waiting  for  Gambetta. 

As  for  Gambetta,  he  listened  only  to  the  voice  of 
patriotism ;  he  defended  the  government,  and  received 
355  votes  against  68,  and  124  who  refrained  from  vot- 
ing, an  order  of  the  day  conceived  in  these  terms: 
"  The  Chamber,  resolved  on  the  complete  execution  of 
the  treaty  signed  by  the  French  nation,  passes  to  the 
order  of  the  day."  This  triumph  designated  him  more 
clearly  than  ever  as  the  choice  for  head  of  the  State. 
Jules  Ferry  understood  it  and  resigned.  ^ 

The  Tunis  business  had,  as  its  epilogue,  the  Roustan 
trial.     We  have  seen  how  "  the  attacks  of  U Intransi- 

1  The  Jules  Ferry  Cabinet  had  been  in  power  since  September  18,  1880. 


TUNIS  AND   EGYPT.  119 

geant  had  become  more  and  more  violent,  in  proportion 
as  the  situation  grew  complicated. "  1  Soon  Rochefort^ 
no  longer  confined  himself  to  attacking  the  ministers  ; 
he  set  upon  M.  Roustan,  whom  he  called  "  their  associ- 
ate, their  accomplice."  At  the  end  of  September  L'ln- 
transigeant  announced  with  great  pomp,  that  it  had 
"  discovered  the  secret  of  Tunis,"  and  began  its  revela- 
tions. In  order  the  better  to  act  upon  the  public,  he 
warned  it  that  the  secret  had  been  betrayed  to  the 
journal  by  "a  diplomat."  He  took  good  care  not  to 
mention  his  name.  Later  on  it  was  found  out  of  whom 
he  was  speaking,  —  "a  former  secretary  of  the  Bey, 
Mohammed  Arif  Effendi,  who'  had  died  three  years 
before  the  expedition,  and  who  could  be  exhumed 
without  any  risk."  ^ 

The  government  lost  patience,  and  requested  M.  Rou- 
stan to  prosecute  L' Intransigeant.  In  this  lawsuit  there 
was  put  on  trial  the  new  law  concerning  the  press,  of 
which  Article  45  took  away  from  the  police  court  the 
judging  of  crimes  of  insult  and  defamation  against  a 
public  functionary,  and  invested  therewith  the  jury. 
The  campaign  was  very  cleverly  conducted  ;  all  M.  Rou- 
stan's  enemies,  all  those  whose  interests  had  been  in- 
jured by  his  energy,  seized  upon  so  fine  an  opportunity 
for  vengeance.  The  jury,  put  out  by  this  throng  of 
strangers  who  rose  up  before  them,  perturbed  by  the 
singular  attitude  of  M.  de  Billing,  acquitted  L* Intransi- 
geant, which  triumphed  insolently. 

The  Parisians  thought  this  charming :  frivolous  and 
sceptical  dilettanteism,  which  for  so  long  was  the  state 
of  mind  among  the  frequenters  of  the  Boulevard,  was 
infinitely  diverted  by  it.     National  questions  were  not, 

1  Baron  d'Estournelles  de  Constant,  La  Politique  Fran(;aise  en  Tu- 
nisie.  2  j^j^f. 


120  THE  EVOLUTION  OF  FRANCE. 

as  yet,  looked  upon  with  that  respect  which  they  were 
destined  to  inspire  later  on,  even  in  the  most  giddy- 
pated;  at  the  sight  of  this  unchaining  of  petty  pas- 
sions, this  deluge  of  lies  and  calumnies,  this  fickleness 
of  the  public  mind,  more  than  one  republican  must 
have  asked  himself  with  anguish  what  would  become 
of  a  system  of  free  discussion  among  a  people  still  so 
little  master  of  its  judgment. 

Rochefort,  already  celebrated  under  the  Empire, 
nominated  deputy  for  Paris,  and,  as  such,  a  member 
of  the  government  of  the  National  Defence,  was  a  noble 
gone  wrong,  whose  real  name  was  the  Marquis  de 
Rochefort  de  Lucay.  His  biting  and  Parisian  spirit, 
his  fiendish  dash,  have,  at  times,  rendered  him  the  idol 
of  the  crowd.  For  years,  he  has  been  writing  every 
day  in  his  newspaper,  L' Intransigeant.  The  evil  which 
he  has  wrought  is  incalculable,  because  of  the  talent 
with  which  he  has  always  contrived  to  clothe  his  false 
and  bad  ideas.  As  he  was  implicated  in  General  Bou- 
langer's  plot,  he  managed  to  flee  before  he  could  be 
arrested,  and  took  up  his  abode  in  London,  whence,  for 
years,  he  daily  telephoned  his  "editorial"  to  Ulntran- 
aigeant.  President  Felix  Faure  pardoned  him  shortly 
after  his  election. 

The  preceding  details  were  necessary  in  order  to 
determine  the  state  of  public  opinion  at  a  decisive 
moment  of  our  history,  at  the  epoch  when  the  Repub- 
lic, duly  established  in  fact,  was  undertaking  to  assimi- 
late itself  definitely  in  France.  If  they  are  afflicting 
to  read  over,  on  the  other  hand,  they  permit  us  to 
take  stock  of  the  progress  which  has  been  made  since 
then ;  and  this  comparison  authorizes  confidence  and 
hope. 

The  government  did  not  weaken  ;  M.  Roustan,  en- 


TUNIS  AND   EGYPT.  121 

ergetically  upheld,  returned  to  his  post,  where  he 
finished  carving  for  himself,  in  the  history  of  the 
regency,  a  tolerably  fine  place,  to  console  him  for  his 
vexations.  On  December  1,  1881,  Gambetta,  having 
become  Prime  Minister,  had  to  explain  to  the  Chamber 
about  the  loan  of  28,900,000  francs,  the  demand  for 
which  Jules  Ferry  had  presented  on  the  eve  of  his 
retirement.  He  outlined,  in  magnificent  style,  the 
system  of  the  protectorate,  and  four  hundred  votes 
approved  his  programme.  It  was,  in  fact,  a  protecto- 
rate which  we  were  on  the  point  of  establishing,  thus 
breaking  with  the  customary  routine  of  our  colonial 
ways.  France,  made  wise  by  the  deplorable  errors 
committed  in  Algeria,  was  about  to  try  this  system 
of  material,  administrative,  and  moral  superposition 
which  succeeds  so  well  with  colonizing  peoples,  and 
of  which  she  was  speedily  to  realize  the  benefits  in 
her  own  case.  The  wise  and  judicious  reforms  which 
were  effected  under  MM.  Roustan,  Cambon,  and  Mas- 
sicault  are  well  known,  and  the  manner  in  which 
Tunis  rapidly  reached  a  degree  of  prosperity  is  still 
unknown  to  our  other  dependencies  beyond  the  sea. 
At  the  very  moment  when  France  found  herself  en- 
gaged in  a  struggle  with  the  difficulties  engendered  by 
her  action  in  Tunis,  events  were  taking  place  in  Egypt  ^ 
which  were  about  to  force  her  to  the  unpleasant  alterna- 
tive of  interfering  in  a  conflict  replete  with  consequences, 
or  of  abandoning  the  sort  of  moral  protectorate  which 
she  exercised  over  the  land  of  the  Pharaohs.  It  is  not 
easy  to  define  otherwise  the  bonds  which  unite  France 
and  Egypt.  They  have  existed  since  the  day  when 
an  illogical  and  unexpected  but  fruitful  idea  led  Bona- 

^  Consult  M.  Borelli's  interesting  volume,  entitled :   Choses  d'j^gypte, 
1883-1895. 


122  TEE  EVOLUTION   OF  FRANCE. 

parte  to  the  foot  of  the  Pyramids.  They  have  been 
consolidated  by  the  progress  of  a  new  science,  Egyp- 
tology, which  remains  to  this  day  almost  exclusively 
French;  and  the  piercing  of  the  Isthmus  of  Suez,  which 
seemed  as  if  it  ought  definitely  to  consecrate  the  friend- 
ship of  the  two  countries,  is  a  private  enterprise  due 
to  French  genius  and  French  capital.  Only  once  has 
France  intervened  with  a  purely  political  aim:  in  1841, 
at  the  time  of  the  Convention  called  the  Convention  of 
the  Straits,  which  secured  the  khedival  throne  to  tlie 
descendants  of  Mehemet  Ali.  One  may  say  that  our 
interests  in  Egypt  are  interests  of  a  special  character ; 
the  glory  of  an  illustrious  captain,  the  labors  of  numer- 
ous learned  men,  the  gifted  enterprise  of  a  great  citizen, 
have  drawn  us  thither  and  retain  us  there.  These  are 
powerful  motives,  less  powerful,  however,  than  those 
obligations  of  a  purely  material  character  resulting 
from  the  presence  in  a  distant  land  of  colonists  who 
are  clearing  and  developing  the  value  of  a  virgin  soil, 
and  who  count  upon  the  protection  of  the  mother-country 
in  case  of  peril.  It  is  easily  comprehensible,  then,  that 
France  should  have  had,  with  regard  to  Egypt,  a  policy 
of  sentiment,  and  a  policy  of  calculation,  and  that,  at  a 
given  moment,  these  two  policies  should  have  found 
themselves  in  opposition  to  each  other.  If  the  absence 
of  good  judgment  and  of  practical  sense,  of  which  the 
government  and  public  opinion  gave  proof  in  these 
circumstances,  ought  to  be  pardoned,  it  can  only  be  in 
consideration  of  this  duality  of  interests. 

The  extravagances  of  the  Khedive  Ismail,  the  finan- 
cial difficulties  which  were  daily  growing  worse,  had 
instigated,  in  1876,  the  unification  of  the  Egyptian  debt 
and  the  establishment  of  the  foreign  superintendence. 
But,  in  1878,  the  Egyptian  government  had  found  it- 


TUNIS  AND  EGYPT.  123 

self  unable  to  fulfil  its  engagements.  M.  Waddington, 
thinking  that  the  circumstances  did  not  authorize  France 
to  intervene  alone,  had  then  conceived  the  idea  of  joint 
action  on  the  part  of  France  and  of  England.  Thus 
was  created  the  system  of  rule  called  that  of  the  con- 
dominium. European  ministers  were  added  to  the 
Cabinet  presided  over  by  Nubar  Pasha,  and  divers 
measures  of  economy  were  adopted.  Among  these 
measures  there  was  one  whose  consequences  were  not 
sufficiently  foreseen.  It  concerned  the  army ;  a  part 
of  the  troops  were  dismissed,  and  twenty-five  hun- 
dred officers  were  placed  on  half-pay.  This  gave  rise 
to  the  first  troubles,  and  was  the  point  of  departure 
for  the  formation  of  a  nationalist  military  party.  This 
party,  upon  which  we  taight,  perhaps,  have  depended 
for  support  with  success,^  rapidly  acquired  influence 
and  prestige.  At  its  head  was  a  clever  and  active  man, 
named  Arabi ;  he  succeeded  in  deceiving  many  of  his 
fellow-countrymen  as  to  the  motives  of  his  action  ;  they 
followed  him,  and  he  soon  felt  himself  strong  enough 
to  organize  a  military  demonstration  (September  11, 
1881),  the  result  of  which  was  that  Cherif  Pasha  was 
forced  to  convene  an  "assembly  of  notables."  The 
Assembly  listened  to  the  lesson  which  was  suggested 
to  it,  demanded  a  national  Parliament,  and  the  right  to 
vote  the  appropriations.  Gambetta  had  just  come  into 
power  in  France ;  he  urged  Lord  Granville  to  inter- 
vene ;  in  spite  of  his  repugnance,  the  latter  consented 

1  MM.  de  Freycinet  and  Barthelemy  de  Saint-Hilaire,  the  successors 
of  M.  Waddington,  did  not  seem  to  understand  what  interest  France  could 
have  in  acting  in  this  manner ;  the  only  functionary  who  did  understand 
it,  M.  de  Ring,  was  turned  out,  and  the  nationalists  returned  to  the  sup- 
port of  Turkey.  More  fortunate  than  M.  de  Ring,  Sir  Edward  Malet,  the 
representative  of  England,  succeeded  in  forcing  the  hand  of  his  govern- 
ment, and  induced  it  to  encourage  Arabi  on  the  sly. 


124  THE  EVOLUTION  OF  FRANCE. 

to  the  presentation  of  an  identical  note,  which  was 
placed,  on  January  7,  1882,  in  the  hands  of  the 
Khedive's  ministers.  "The  two  governments,"  said 
the  note,  "  inasmuch  as  they  are  closely  associated  in 
the  resolve  to  ward  off,  by  their  joint  efforts,  all  causes 
of  complication,  external  or  internal,  which  shall 
menace  the  government  established  in  Egypt,  do  not 
doubt,  etc."i  The  Porte,  of  course,  protested,  saying 
that  "  nothing  can  justify  the  step  taken  with  regard 
to  His  Highness  Tewfik  Pasha,  the  more  so  as  Egypt 
forms  an  integral  part  of  the  possessions  of  His  Majesty 
the  Sultan,  and  as  the  power  conferred  on  the  Khedive 
.  .  .  essentially  pertains  to  the  domain  of  tlie  rights 
and  prerogatives  of  the  Sublime  Porte."  But  this  protest 
would  have  remained  inoperative,  had  not  the  fall  of 
the  Gambetta  ministry  suddenly  taken  place  on  January 
26,  and  thereby  put  an  immediate  stop  to  the  move- 
ment of  intervention  which  they  were  beginning  to 
sketch  out  in  Paris.  Tergiversation  began  again ;  the 
winter  of  1882  passed,  without  their  having  arrived  at 
any  solution  of  the  problem.  Arabi  became  more  and 
more  popular,  and  felt  that  he  was  better  and  better 
obeyed ;  he  organized  a  sham  plot  against  himself, 
collected  together  a  court-martial,  and  caused  the 
pretended  culprits  to  be  condemned  with  such  severity 
that  the  consuls  were  obliged  to  interfere  to  persuade 
the  Khedive  to  commute  the  sentence. 

On  May  25,  at  last  backed  up  by  the  presence  of  the 
fleets  of  their  respective  countries,  which  had  just  cast 
anchor  in  front  of  Alexandria,  M.  Sienkevicz,  the 
Consul-General  of  France,  and  Sir  Edward  Malet 
demanded  of  the  Khedive  the  dismissal  of  his  ministers 

1  This  note  was  due  to  the  initiative  of  Gambetta ;  this  has  been  proved 
by  the  Yellow  Books. 


CH.    DE    FREYCINET,     MINISTER    AND    SENATOR. 


fTiiriVBasiTT] 


TUNIS  AND  EGYPT.  125 

and  the  removal  of  Arabi.  Tewfik  seemed  to  yield, 
and  the  ministry  resigned  ;  but  a  few  days  later,  Arabi, 
restored  to  his  posts,  recovered  an  almost  dictatorial 
power.  Then  the  Porte  came  on  the  scene,  and  sent 
to  Egypt  an  official  commission  entrusted  with  the 
re-establishment  of  order.  Dervish  Pasha  was  at  the 
head  of  it.  This  was  almost  a  solution  of  the  problem ; 
at  least  it  was  an  expedient,  and  perhaps  the  best,  to 
provoke  the  intervention  of  Turkey  and  to  support  it.^ 
But  M.  de  Freycinet  preferred  to  have  recourse,  in  his 
desire  to  avoid  complications,  to  that  expedient  which 
is  so  well  worn  that  it  is  equivalent  to  a  confession  of 
impotence, — the  assembling  of  an  international  con- 
ference. This  was  a  proceeding  appropriate  to  Otto- 
man sluggishness ;  nevertheless,  the  Sultan  did  not 
appoint  any  representatives.  He  no  longer  admitted 
the  interference  of  Europe  in  his  quarrel  with  a  vassal, 
and  claimed  the  right  to  settle  it  alone.  The  con- 
ference opened  at  Constantinople  on  June  23.  On 
June  10,  four  days  after  Dervish  Pasha  had  set  foot  on 
the  soil  of  Egypt,  the  massacre  of  three  hundred  Euro- 
peans had  stained  Alexandria  with  blood,  and  England, 
emerging  from  her  state  of  irresolution,  and  now  re- 
solved to  interfere,  made  preparations  for  the  combat. 
On  July  11,  while  the  plenipotentiaries  at  Constanti- 
nople  were   pacifically  deliberating,  presided  over  by 

1  M.  Delafosse  pointed  it  out  to  the  Chamber  on  June  1 ;  but  the 
government  seemed  to  have  no  plan  and  no  idea  upon  this  point.  In  the 
course  of  the  discussion,  M.  de  Freycinet  let  slip  imprudent  words  which 
bore  witness  to  too  keen  an  anxiety  not  to  expose  himself  to  complica- 
tions. "You  have  just  delivered  over  to  Europe,"  cried  Gambetta,  "  the 
secret  of  your  weakness;  henceforth  it  will  suffice  to  intimidate  you  to 
make  you  consent  to  anything!  "  The  publication  of  the  English  Blue 
Books  has  corroborated,  it  must  be  confessed,  all  that  had  been  suspected 
concerning  the  spirit  of  indecisiou  which  the  government  exhibited  during 
this  period. 


\ 


126  THE  EVOLUTION   OF  FRANCE.  * 

Count  Corti,  the  Italian  ambassador,  Admiral  Seymour 
began  the  bombardment  of  Alexandria.  As  Admiral 
Conrad  had  received  orders  to  withdraw  from  Egypt 
with  the  French  squadron,  the  English  had  not  hesi- 
tated to  act  alone,  and  to  place  Egypt  face  to  face  with 
an  accomplished  fact,  —  the  fact  of  war,  which  had  not 
been  preceded  by  any  declaration  of  hostilities,  and 
which  was  not  justified  even  by  the  tragic  event  which 
had  been  its  moving  cause. 

The  character  of  the  crisis  had  now  been  made  clear  : 
at  the  beginning,  England  and  France  had  hesitated 
between  the  desire  of  not  having  to  share  if  things 
turned  out  well,  and  the  fear  of  having  acted  alone  if 
things  should  turn  out  badly ;  at  the  same  time  they 
had  seen  Arabi,  the  chief  of  the  nationalist  party, 
defend  the  prerogatives  of  the  Sultan,  and  the  latter 
officially  disavow  him,  while  his  representatives  en- 
couraged him  in  secret.  Then  while  the  uncertainty 
waxed  in  France,  England  had,  little  by  little,  grown 
accustomed  to  the  idea  of  the  heavy  responsibility 
which  her  intervention  would  entail.  Without  troub- 
ling herself  further  about  the  conversations  which  the 
diplomats  at  Constantinojile  continued  to  exchange,^ 
she  thenceforth  marched  straight  to  the  goal.     With 


1  The  conference  continued  its  labors  without  any  brilliancy ;  it  did  not 
occupy  itself  with  the  bombardment  of  Alexandria,  which  embarrassed  it, 
but  drew  up  a  note,  called  the  Note  of  July  15,  which  requested  the 
Sultan  to  occupy  Egypt  with  an  army,  with  the  consent  of  the  powers. 
The  Porte,  on  thinking  the  matter  over,  consented  to  take  part  in  the  dis- 
cussions; everything  had  to  be  begun  all  over  again.  At  last,  they  con- 
fined themselves  to  a  declaration  of  a  Platonic  understanding  with  a  view 
to  maintaining  the  freedom  of  the  canal.  The  attitude  of  Lord  Dufferin 
at  the  conference  had  grown  more  accentuated  every  day;  at  last  he 
announced,  on  July  30,  that  the  English  troops  would  not  withdraw,  but 
that,  under  certain  conditions,  England  would  accept  the  "aid"  of 
Turkey. 


TUNIS  AND  EGYPT.  127 

US,  men's  minds  began  to  get  warmed  up ;  certain 
journals,  forgetting  the  encouragement  which  they  had 
addressed  to  England,  three  months  earlier,  now  ac- 
cused her  of  treachery.  The  attitude  of  M.  de  Lesseps, 
who  himself  undertook  to  defend  his  canal,  and  had 
obtained  from  Arabi  the  promise  that  freedom  of  navi- 
gation upon  it  should  not  be  impeded,  excited  enthu- 
siasm ;  the  more  so  as  men  awaited,  in  vain,  from  the 
governing  powers  a  direction,  or  any  declaration  what- 
soever which  should  satisfy  the  national  self-love,  at 
least.  M.  de  Freycinet  demanded  appropriations  for 
the  arming  of  the  fleet,  protesting  the  while,  it  is  true, 
that  he  would  not  use  them.^  When  it  was  put  to  the 
vote,  the  appropriations  were  refused.  Every  one  was 
in  a  bad  humor,  because  each  one  appreciated  his  own 
share  of  the  guilt,  as  well  as  of  the  forced  inconsistency 
between  their  secret  desires  and  their  actions.  If  the 
government  failed  in  its  duty  by  not  guiding,  they 
could  have  compelled  it,  in  a  certain  way,  to  intervene, 
by  voting  it  larger  appropriations  than  it  asked  for. 
And  at  that  date  there  was  still  time  for  this ;  the 
troops  of  the  Indian  army  had  not  yet  disembarked  at 
Suez. 2  The  truth  is,  that  the  deputies  recoiled  before 
the  very  responsibility  which  they  reproached  the  min- 
isters for  not  assuming ;  and  when  the  latter  had  re- 


1  When  the  discussion  of  the  appropriation  came  up,  M.  de  Freycinet 
found  himself  the  target  for  almost  general  attacks.  He  recognized  the 
fact  that,  henceforth,  France  had  "definite  grievances"  which  gave  her 
"the  right  to  intervene,"  hut  he  again  showed  his  repugnance  to  entan- 
gling himself  in  a  path  which  he  regarded  as  dangerous.  His  attitude  was 
blamed  in  thtf  Senate ;  on  July  25,  the  committee,  though  it  ended  by 
adopting  the  appropriation,  addressed  to  the  government,  through  the 
organ  of  its  chairman,  M.  Scherer,  an  energetic  reprimand.  On  July  29 
the  appropriations  were  rejected,  and  the  Cabinet  resigned.  M.  Duclerc 
assumed  the  power. 

-  The  disembarkation  took  place  at  the  beginning  of  August, 


128  THE  EVOLUTION   OF  FRANCE. 

signed,  no  one  dreamed  that  a  ministry  of  intervention 
could  reasonably  be  formed.  The  danger  was  too  plain ; 
and,  in  case  of  intervention,^  the  attitude  of  Europe 
was  too  uncertain.  In  the  beginning,  they  had  not 
foreseen  what  the  issue  of  the  conflict  would  be ;  still 
less  had  they  foreseen  with  what  incredible  indifference 
the  powers  would  watch  it  unfold  itself.  "  Neither 
veto  nor  warrant,"  M.  de  Bismarck  had  said,  and  this 
countersign  was  put  into  literal  execution.  A  few 
years  earlier  Russia,  by  too  closely  approaching  Con- 
stantinople, had  aroused  the  protests  of  all ;  this  time, 
England  threw  her  regiments  upon  the  banks  of  the 
Nile,  and  not  a  remonstrance  was  heard. 

In  the  night  of  the  19th-20th  of  August,  1882,  Sir  Gar- 
net (afterwards  Lord)  Wolseley,  Commander-in-Chief 
of  the  British  forces,  occupied  Port  Said  and  Ismailia, 
closed  the  canal,  for  the  purpose  of  disembarking  his 
troops,  then  opened  it  again  to  navigation,  announcing 
his  intention  to  pay  for  the  transit,  by  way  of  indem- 
nity. Had  this  forcible  action  been  followed  up  by  a 
prompt  march  forward,  the  English  would  not  have 
encountered,  at  Ramses  and  at  Gassanin,  the  rather 
serious  resistance  which  the  time  lost  in  forming  the 
convoys  allowed  to  be  organized.  On  September  23, 
the  battle  of  Teb-el-Kebir  opened  to  them  access  to 
Cairo,  and,  as  early  as  the  17th,  Lord  Dufferin  informed 
the  Porte  that  henceforth  it  would  be  useless  to  send 
troops  ;  at  the  same  time,  England  let  it  be  understood 
that  the  condominium  had  ceased  to  exist.^     France  was 

1  This  feeling  was  shown  at  a  session  of  the  Chamber  on  February  23, 
1882,  when  M.  Francis  Charmes  considered  the  opportunity  of  a  French 
military  intervention,  and  again,  at  the  session  of  May  11,  following,  when 
the  question  of  the  pretended  plot  against  Arabi  came  up. 

-  In  Cairo,  a  comic  act  terminated  the  drama.  Arabi  was  brought  be- 
fore the  court ;  it  was  difficult  not  to  condemn  him  to  death.    The  English 


TUNIS  AND  EGYPT.  129 

oifered,  by  way  of  compensation,  the  presidency  of  the 
Commission  of  the  Public  Debt.  M.  Duclerc,  President 
of  the  Council,  refused  it ;  as  he  was  anxious,  above  all 
things,  to  settle  present  difficulties,  and  to  hold  the 
future  in  reserve,  he  abstained  from  making  a  counter- 
proposal. In  the  month  of  January,  1883,  he  announced 
to  the  Chamber  that  the  negotiations  had  ceased,  and 
that  France  would  retain  her  full  and  entire  liberty  of 
action  with  regard  to  Egyptian  affairs. 

What  could  she  do  with  it  ?  Egypt  seemed  lost  to 
her.  Lord  Granville  had  informed  Europe  of  the 
result  of  the  campaign,  and  had  had  his  declarations 
followed  up  by  a  few  brief  statements  as  to  the  neu- 
tralization of  the  canal,  the  reorganization  of  the  Egyp- 
tian army,  and  of  the  public  offices ;  the  powers  had 
received  this  communication  without  showing  either 
surprise  or  displeasure.  But  it  came  to  pass  that  the 
conquest  was  not  organized  without  vexations  and  inci- 
dents of  all  sorts,  and  that  even  in  England  a  certain 
number  of  men  in  political  life  insisted  that  Egypt 
should  be  evacuated  as  soon  as  order  was  re-established 
there.  At  the  end  of  1883,  just  as  a  part  of  the  troops 
were  on  the  point  of  being  sent  home,  a  disaster  which 
befell  General  Hicks  at  the  head  of  a  body  of  Egyptian 
regulars  against  the  Soudanese  insurgents,  permitted 
the  British  government  to  countermand  the  partial 
evacuation  ;  in  1884,  it  was  the  Mahdi  who  served  as 

stepped  in,  took  possession  of  his  person,  and  installed  him  at  Ceylon. 
They  succeeded,  at  the  same  time,  in  screening  all  his  accomplices  from  the 
judgment  of  the  court-martial.  This  equivocal  conduct  gave  rise  to  the 
thought  that  Arabi  had  played  traitor,  and  that  a  secret  compact  had  been 
entered  into  by  him  and  England.  Among  the  English,  it  was  a  current 
pleasantry  to  say  that  the  battle  of  Teb-el-Kebir  had  been  won  by  the 
"cavalry  of  Saint  George."  This  was  the  name  which  they  gave  to  the 
gold  pieces,  worth  a  pound  sterling  each,  upon  which  was  the  eflSgy  of 
Saint  George  striking  down  the  dragon. 


130  THE  EVOLUTION  OF  FRANCE. 

pretext,  and  this  pretext,  at  least,  was  serious  :  every- 
one knows  how  General  Gordon  shut  himself  up  in 
Khartoum,  and  how  the  expedition  sent  to  his  relief 
arrived  too  late  to  save  him.  On  April  21  of  that 
same  year  (1884),  Mr.  Gladstone  convoked  a  confer- 
ence, to  the  extreme  indignation  of  the  ultra  party,  to 
discuss  Egyptian  affairs. ^  Jules  Ferry  cleverly  seized 
upon  this  occasion  to  propose  the  establishment  of  an 
international  superintendence,  under  the  shadow  of 
which  we  might  have  been  able  to  re-establish  our  influ- 
ence. The  indifference  of  Europe  caused  this  plan  to 
come  to  naught ;  the  conference  was  not  a  success  ;  no 
one  spoke  at  it.  Evidently,  the  governments  which 
had  permitted  England  to  triumph  alone  in  Egypt 
were  not  inclined  to  aid  her  now  that  she  found  her- 
self struggling  with  difficulties  there.  But  England 
made  up  her  mind,  and  remained  in  Egypt ;  we  could 
only  work  at  the  maintenance  of  the  statu  quo^  and  pre- 
vent fresh  encroachments.^ 

Such  are,  too  briefly  summed  up,  the  events  which 
caused  France  to  lose  a  part  of  the  prestige  which  she 
had  acquired,  abroad,  during  the  preceding  years,  and 
which  so  deeply  disturbed  her  relations  with  England. 

1  Mr.  Gladstone  had  always  shown  very  little  enthusiasm  with  regard 
to  new  conquests  in  general,  and  to  that  of  Egypt  in  particular.  In  a 
declaration  made  to  the  House  of  Commons  on  February  8,  1882,  he 
repulsed  the  idea  of  an  exclusive  intervention,  admitting  not  only  France 
but  also  the  other  powers  to  a  participation  therein.  He  was,  therefore, 
logical  with  himself,  when  he  returned  to  the  idea  of  a  collective  interven- 
tion, as  soon  as  the  adventure  threatened  to  become  tragic  in  consequence 
of  the  violent  awakening  of  Mussulman  fanaticism. 

2  In  1883  England  concluded  with  the  Porte  an  agreement  whose 
clauses  aggravated  the  condition  of  affairs,  and,  in  a  certain  way,  legal- 
ized the  presence  of  her  troops  on  the  banks  of  the  Nile.  The  energetic 
interference  of  M.  Flourens  was  exercised  just  in  the  nick  of  time ;  the 
Comte  de  Montebello,  our  ambassador  at  Constantinople,  communicated 
to  the  Porte  a  sort  of  ultimatum,  and  the  agreement  negotiated  by  Sir 
Druramond  Wolf  was  rejected. 


TUNIS   AND   EGYPT.  131 

Our  abstention  might  have  been  as  well  understood  in 
Europe  as  our  action ;  there  were  serious  reasons  for 
acting,  and  there  were  equally  serious  reasons  for 
abstaining  from  action.  What  caused  surprise,  and 
even  uneasiness,  —  because  they  were  regarded  as 
proofs  that  the  French  government  was  crumbling,  — 
were  the  half-measures,  the  violences  of  language  which 
were  not  followed  up  by  any  energetic  act,  those  petu- 
lant insults,  as  of  a  spoiled  child,  by  which  it  made  up 
for  the  disappointments  suffered.  The  balance  of  do- 
mestic affairs  during  the  year  1882  was  not  of  a  nature 
to  heighten  confidence. 

The  French,  as  yet  but  little  accustomed  to  the  exer- 
cise of  an  impersonal  system  of  government,  and  inclined 
to  believe  in  men  of  destiny,  had  grown  used  to  the  idea 
that  Gambetta  held  in  reserve  for  them  marvellous  pro- 
gress, admirable  reforms,  and  that  all  the  smiles  of  fort- 
une rested  upon  him.  The  legislative  elections  of  1881 
had  contributed  to  strengthen  this  impression  ;  prepared 
and  carried  out  by  Jules  Ferry,  they  were,  in  the  eyes  of 
all,  the  prelude  to  the  arrival  of  Gambetta  at  power,  and 
when  it  was  known  that  the  Republic  had  gained  fifty- 
three  seats  in  them,  it  was  known  at  the  same  time  that 
the  Gambetta  ministry  was  made. 

The  President  of  the  Chamber,  on  his  side,  was  pre- 
paring himself  for  the  part  to  which  he  felt  himself 
called ;  he  assumed  more  and  more  the  manners  of  a 
party  leader  upon  whom  already  weigh  the  coming 
responsibilities  of  power.  Sagacity  and  reason  were 
mingled  in  his  speeches  with  those  superb  outbursts  of 
the  heart  which  made  him  translate  into  his  daring 
language  the  thought  of  all,  so  that  "  one  really  heard 
in  him   the   echo  of   the   national   conscience."^      At 

1  Hippeau,  Histoire  Diplomatique  de  la  Troisieme  R^publique. 


132  THE  EVOLUTION  OF  FRANCE. 

Cahors,  on  May  28,  1881,  he  had  again  taken  up  the 
defence  of  the  Senate,  which  was  threatened  by  the 
ultra-repul?licans ;  he  beheld  it,  he  said,  "  growing, 
with  each  renewal,  in  democratic  and  liberal  force," 
and  he  added  these  prophetic  words  :  "  Perhaps  we 
shall  become  accustomed  to  finding  therein  supreme 
resources  which  you  will  be  happy  to  have."  If,  at 
Tours,  on  August  4,  and  at  Belleville,  he  had  an- 
nounced himself  as  being  in  favor  of  a  partial  revision 
of  the  Constitution,  it  was  because  he  considered  it 
well,  by  sacrificing  a  few  articles  of  lesser  importance 
from  the  text  of  the  Constitution,  to  cause  the  whole 
to  be  consecrated  afresh  by  an  assembly  of  which  the 
majority  should  be,  this  time,  plainly  republican.^  At 
this  date  Gambetta  was  as  conservative  as  a  republican 
could  be  ;  a  breeze  of  moderation  was  blowing  over  the 
country ;  in  the  desiderata  of  the  electors  moderation  in 
the  solving  of  problems  stood  on  a  level  with  republi- 
can stability. 2  All,  therefore,  was  in  readiness  for  the 
formation  of  the  "  great  ministry."  It  was  called  thus 
before  it  was  born. 

1  It  was  with  the  same  feeling,  and  in  order  that  the  republican  party 
might  present  a  solid  front  to  the  electors,  that  Jules  Ferry,  at  Nancy,  on 
August  10,  had  also  accepted  the  principle  of  a  partial  revision. 

2  This  tendency  had  shown  itself  in  the  municipal  election  of  Paris,  in 
January,  1881,  even  more  than  at  the  legislative  elections  in  the  autumn. 
M.  ^douard  Herve,  one  of  those  elected  in  January,  outlined  a  movement 
of  truce,  if  not  of  mugwumpery.  M.  Dugue'  de  la  Fauconnerie  had  openly 
come  back  to  his  allegiance.  (See  his  letter  to  his  constituents  in  the 
France  of  January  23.)  "  The  army  of  a  monarchical  party,"  he  said, 
"  is  composed  of  petty  functionaries  who  cannot  expose  themselves  every 
day  to  dismissal,  and  of  hard-working  men  who  require,  for  their  subsist- 
ence, that  things  should  go  on.  .  .  .  There  is  but  one  part  for  us  to  play, 
which  is  both  useful  and  worthy  of  us :  it  is  to  take  our  stand  frankly  on 
the  ground  of  things  as  they  are."  At  his  re-election,  which  followed  his 
resignation,  he  found  himself  opposed  by  a  royalist,  the  Comte  de  Levis, 
and  by  a  republican,  M.  Bansart  des  Bois.  As  he  had  fewer  votes  at  the 
first  ballot,  he  withdrew  at  the  second,  in  favor  of  his  republican  rival, 


TUNIS  AND  EGYPT.  183 

It  was  formed  on  November  14,  1881.  Gambetta 
had  chosen  for  his  colleagues  General  Campenon,  MM. 
Allain-Targd,  Waldeck- Rousseau,  Rouvier,  Raynal, 
Antonin  Proust,  Cazot,  Paul  Bert,  Gougeaud  (Navy), 
Devds,  and  Cochery.  For  the  first  time  men  got,  as 
by  an  object-lesson,  a  notion  as  to  the  solidarity  of  a 
Cabinet ;  this  was  homogeneous.  Great  things  were 
expected  of  it.  The  Times  saluted  it  by  saying  that 
"it  would  mark  an  epoch  in  European  history."  Now, 
nothing  of  the  sort  came  to  pass.  The  majority  showed 
themselves  jealous  of  its  work ;  it  would  not  admit  that 
which,  eleven  years  later,  it  was  to  claim  from  M. 
Casimir-Pdrier,  namely,  that  the  Prime  Minister  should 
have  a  policy  of  his  own,  and  should  apply  it ;  it  con- 
fused this  preponderance  of  the  head  of  the  government 
with  dictatorship,  and  seemed  to  fear  lest  the  one  should 
lead  to  the  other ;  so  that,  after  having  spent  five  years 
in  thrusting  a  man  into  power,  it  turned  him  out  at  the 
end  of  two  months,  only  to  grant  his  successor  that 
which  it  had  refused  to  him. 

Political  customs  were  not  sufficiently  formed  to 
permit  Gambetta  to  govern  as  a  man  of  his  breadth 
could  govern ;  that  is  to  say,  as  an  autocratic  Prime 
Minister.  Autocratic  he  was  by  temperament ;  he  had 
proved  it  in  1870,  and  he  continued  to  "  lean  to  the  side 
of  that  centralization  which  all  of  our  governments  have 
faithfully  transmitted,  and  which  prevented  the  devel- 
opment of  local  liberties,  and,  above  all,  of  individual 
liberties."^  But  his  patriotism  dominated  all  else;  he 
constituted  a  supreme  guarantee  against  all  evil  ambition, 

through  a  proper  sense  of  electoral  discipline.  It  is  to  be  noted  that  the 
language  of  M.  Dugue  de  la  Fauconnerie  in  1881  will  be  found,  in  1887,  on 
the  lips  of  M.  Raoul  Duval,  and  in  1891,  on  those  of  M.  Piou. 

1  E.  de  Pressens^,  Vari6t(s  morales  et  politiques.  Gambetta.  1  vol. 
Paris,  188«. 


134  THE  EVOLUTION  OF  FRANCE. 

against  every  plan  which  was  not  honest  and  upright. 
The  man  who  had,  on  many  occasions,  sacrificed  his 
ideas  and  his  preferences  in  order  to  make  for  the 
Republic  a  larger  and  more  solid  foundation  ought  not 
to  have  been  suspected  of  aspiring  to  dictatorship  ;  it 
was  only  necessary  to  understand  that  the  coat  of  the 
other  Prime  Ministers  was  not  made  for  him,  and  to 
permit  him  to  cut  out  one  which  should  fit  him. 

He  left  the  ministry  without  having  been  able  to  act, 
never  to  return  to  it.  Death  claimed  him  on  the  last 
night  of  that  year,  1882,  which  was  so  disappointing  to 
France.  They  gave  him  an  incomparable  funeral.  His 
last  speech  had  been  upon  Egyptian  affairs,  and  had 
been  inspired  by  his  ardent  patriotism.  He  had  not 
governed,  but,  as  M.  de  Pressens^  has  said,  "he  had 
twice  or  thrice  had  the  honor  to  make  the  heart  of 
France  speak  through  his  mouth."  ^  That  is  an  honor 
which  surpasses  all  others. 

1  E.  de  Pressense,  Varidtds  morales  et  politiqiies.  Gambetta.  1  vol. 
Paris,  1886. 


THE  JULES  FERET  MINISTRY.  135 


CHAPTER  VI. 

THE  JULES  FERRY  MINISTRY. 

Governmental  Anarchy.  —  The  "Long  Ministry."  —  Legislative  Work  is 
resumed.  —  Angry  Quarrels  between  the  Extremist  Parties.  —  The 
Revision  of  1884.  —  Energy  of  Jules  Ferry.  —  His  Asiatic  Policy. — 
March  30, 1885. 

The  crisis  of  January  26,  1882,  reverberated  long, 
especially  in  the  country  districts,  and  its  consequences 
were  considerable.  The  politicians  gave  themselves 
up  to  controversy  on  the  theory  of  government,  the 
nature  and  prerogatives  of  ministerial  power,  parlia- 
mentary responsibility  ;  the  voters,  surprised  and  dis- 
illusioned, allowed  themselves  to  fall  into  a  state  of 
apathy  of  which  the  adversaries  of  the  Republic  took 
advantage  ;  ^  in  the  Chamber  men  entangled  themselves 
in  bitter  recriminations.  The  government  which  had 
succeeded  to  that  of  Gambetta  had  no  opinion  as  to 
anything,  not  even  as  to  the  central  mayoralty  of  Paris. ^ 
When  the  irremovability  of  the  magistrates  came 
under  discussion,  —  whether  it  should  be  suspended 
or  suppressed,  —  it  allowed  the  principle  of  election  of 
judges  to  be  voted. ^     We  have  seen  what  its  attitude 

1  Republican  abstentions  from  voting  in  the  municipal  elections  caused 
350  to  400  communes  to  pass  into  the  hands  of  reactionist  administrations. 

2  It  was  the  Chamber  which,  by  a  vote  of  256  against  153  against  the 
Deves-Ca.simir-Perier  order  of  the  day,  setting  forth  that  it  was  "  opposed 
to  the  creation  of  the  central  mayoralty,"  gave  a  hint  to  the  government. 

3  The  committee  appointed  to  consider  the  framing  of  a  law  presented 
a  report,  in  1883,  which  decided  upon  the  establishment  of  the  suffrage  in 
two  grades,  but  the  disposition  of  the  Chamber  had  changed ;  it  returned 
to  its  vote  of  the  preceding  year,  and  the  election  of  magistrates  was  no 
longer  in  question. 


136  THE  EVOLUTION  OF  FRANCE. 

was  during  the  Egyptian  business,  and  how  its  conduct 
was  censured  in  the  Senate  ;  the  Senate  presented  a 
contrast  to  the  Chamber  by  the  serenity  with  which  it 
studied  the  reform  of  the  code  of  examining  criminals. 
The  passage  of  M.  Scherer's  report,  to  which  allusion 
was  made  in  the  preceding  chapter,  ran  as  follows  : 
"  Gentlemen,  the  regret  which  the  conduct  of  the 
Cabinet  has  caused  us  has  not  been  inspired  alone  by 
hesitation  or  contradictions  in  the  management  of  for- 
eign affairs,  but  we  have  sometimes  asked  ourselves 
whether  the  uncertainty  of  its  conduct  did  not  proceed 
from  an  exaggerated  anxiety  as  to  the  parliamentary 
position ;  without  being,  in  the  least,  insensible  to  the 
difficulties  which  the  conditions  of  modern  society  op- 
pose to  the  exercise  of  power,  it  seemed  to  us  that  the 
surest  means  of  securing  a  majority  was  clearness  of 
views  and  authoritative  convictions.  A  contemporary 
statesman  said  to  me  :  '  The  great  misfortune  of  our 
times  is,  the  fear  of  responsibility ' ;  he  might  have 
added,  that  public  opinion  is  better  governed  by  form- 
ing it  than  by  following  it,  and  that  it  can  be  formed 
only  by  energy  of  initiative." 

A  few  days  later  (July  29,  1882),  Minister  Freycinet 
was  defeated  on  the  question  of  the  appropriations  for 
Egypt,  by  417  votes  against  75.  After  long  parleying, 
the  Duclerc  Cabinet  was  formed.^  The  talent  and  good- 
will of  the  new  President  of  the  Council  and  of  his 
colleagues  could  not  cope  with  a  situation  which  had 
no  way  out.  The  Committee  on  Appropriations  was  in 
disorder  ;  M.  Allain-Targ^'s  scheme  of  appropriations, 
modified  from  top  to  bottom  by  M.  L6on  Say,  was 
laboriously  made  up  again  by  M.  Tirard.     In  front  of 

1  It  comprised  MM.  Devfes,  Duvaux,  Fallieres,  Herisson,  Tirard,  Pierre 
Legrand,  Cochery,  de  Mahy,  General  Billot,  and  Admiral  Jaure'guiberry. 


THE  JULES  FERRY  MINISTRY.  137 

them  they  had  the  Extreme  Left,  which  continued  to 
entertain  in  public  opinion  very  dangerous  errors, 
demanding  the  separation  of  Church  and  State  and  the 
suppression  of  the  Senate.  These  exaggerations  re- 
stored some  hope  to  the  reactionaries  ;  there  were  royal- 
ist demonstrations  in  the  country  districts,  even  some 
appeals  to  civil  war,  while  at  Montceau-les-Mines  the 
first  dynamite  cartridge  was  exploded. 

The  year  1883  opened  in  a  disturbing  manner.  The 
death  of  Gambetta  caused  consternation  among  the 
republicans  of  the  government ;  at  the  same  time,  it 
severed  the  only  bonds  which  attached  to  the  Republic 
certain  Conservatives  who  had  been  fascinated  by  the 
energy  of  the  man  now  dead  and  the  breadth  of  his  style 
in  speaking.  Prince  Napoleon  published  a  manifesto,  to 
which,  very  awkwardly,  was  attributed  an  aim  which  it 
did  not  possess. 1  At  last  M.  Duclerc  fell  ill,  and  was 
forced  to  resign,  soon  followed  by  General  Billot  and 
by  Admiral  Jaurdguiberry.  M.  Fallidres  acted  as  Presi- 
dent of  the  Council,  without  even  filling  the  vacancies 
in  the  Cabinet,  so  precarious  was  the  ministerial  com- 
bination felt  to  be. 

On  all  sides  the  desire  was  exhibited  to  emerge  from 
the  provisional,  to  escape  from  "  combinations,"  to 
have  a  policy  to  follow,  even  though  it  were  mediocre. 
Industrial  associations  sent  addresses  to  the  head  of 
the  State ;  the  Union  of  Workingmen's  Syndicates 
demanded  from  him  the  constitution  of    a  "  durable 


1  This  manifesto,  pasted  upon  the  walls  of  Paris  during  the  night,  and 
signed  "  Napoleon,"  was  nothing  more  than  a  long  ari'aignment  of  the 
Republic,  ending  with  an  appeal  to  the  people.  Some  radicals  pretended 
to  be  greatly  alarmed  thereat,  and  busied  themselves  with  bringing  up 
the  "question  of  the  princes."  On  February  9,  the  Chamber  of  Impeach- 
ments declared  that  there  was  no  occasion  for  prosecuting  Prince  Jerome 
Napoleon. 


138  THE  EVOLUTION  OF  FRANCE. 

ministry,  resolved  to  defend  the  Republic  against  all 
violence,  from  whatsoever  quarter  it  might  come, 
decided  to  achieve  its  ends  " ;  a  ministry  "  which  should 
resolutely  take  the  initiative  in  the  social  reforms  which 
have  so  long  been  promised  to  us  in  vain,  and  which 
should  be  able  to  make  the  Republic  respected  in  Europe 
and  throughout  the  world." 

Jules  Ferry,  determined  to  defend  the  Republic  and 
to  attain  his  ends,  was  that  man.  The  majority  re- 
garded his  return  with  satisfaction,  because  they  felt 
that  in  him  they  had  their  true,  and,  henceforth,  their 
only  leader.  The  minority  was  divided  between  the 
fear  of  receiving  blows,  and  the  pleasure  of  dealing 
them.  A  fighting  minister  answered  to  their  comba- 
tive instinct ;  and  above  all  others  they  preferred  that 
one  to  whom,  at  least,  they  could  not  refuse  the  esteem 
which  his  life  and  the  sincerity  of  his  convictions  in- 
spired. Only  he  remained  in  their  eyes  the  man  of 
Article  7,  the  instigator  of  the  "  religious  persecution," 
and  they  cherished  the  hope  of  taking  vengeance  some 
day  for  that  past  which  was  so  keenly  felt.  Jules 
Ferry  was  not  popular  in  the  country  districts  ;  he  was, 
and  always  remained,  incomprehensible  to  the  masses. 
To  tell  the  truth,  the  unpopularity  which  eventually 
became  attached  to  his  name  could  not  have  been 
propagated  had  the  people  known  the  man  who  was 
its  object ;  but  to  the  day  of  his  death  they  failed  to 
understand  him,  as  often  happens  to  pioneers.  We 
shall  have    occasion,   in   a  later   chapter,^   to   present 

1  National  Education.  Jules  Ferry  was  thrice  Minister  oi  Public 
Education,  from  February  4,  1879,  to  November  14,  1881 ;  from  January 
30  to  August  7,  1882 ;  from  February  21  to  November  20,  1883.  The  prin- 
cipal laws  to  which  he  appended  his  name  are  these :  that  of  August  7, 

1879,  on  the  establishment  of  primary  normal  schools;  of  February  27, 

1880,  on  the  Supreme  Council  of  public  instruction ;  of  March  18,  1880,  on 


THE  JULES  FERRY  MINISTRY.  139 

an  estimate  of  Jules  Ferry's  work  as  Minister  of  Pub- 
lic Education ;  it  offers  a  great  character  of  unity, 
and  even  of  moderation,  but  it  was  set  forth  without 
the  precautions  which  would  have  been  advisable,  and 
imposed  with  a  certain  abruptness ;  then  it  came  to 
pass  that  the  head  of  the  University  said  gentle  things 
in  a  violent  manner.  Later  on  he  learned  to  make  a 
better  choice  of  expressions,  his  retorts  were  less  trench- 
ant, and  he  exhibited  more  skill  in  self-control.  In 
1883  a  belligerent  impression  was  still  lingering  from 
his  first  ministerial  term,  which  helped  to  group  around 
him,  in  the  second,  the  whole  body  of  republicans ;  the 
worse  side  of  him  attracted  them,  and  they  were  unable 
to  divine  his  better  side.  Recent  events,  the  wrath 
which  they  felt  at  the  check  and  then  at  the  death  of 
Gambetta,  engendered  in  them  the  desire  for  a  harsh 
and  decisive  struggle,  from  which  the  Republic  should 
emerge  in  final  triumph,  after  having  hurled  to  the 
earth  all  her  enemies.  With  Gambetta,  they  would 
have  been  glad  to  make  peace ;  with  Jules  Ferry,  they 
were  anxious  to  fight.  The  President  of  the  Council 
resumed  the  portfolio  of  Public  Education  which  was 
so  dear  to  him,  and  which  he  did  not  exchange  until 
somewhat  later  for  that  of  Foreign  Affairs  ;  he  sur- 
rounded himself  with  colleagues  who  belonged  to  the 
moderate  party,  ^  and  immediately  set  to  work.     The 

the  bestowal  of  degrees,  and  the  liberty  of  higher  instruction ;  of  Decem- 
ber 21,  1880,  on  the  secondary  instruction  of  young  girls ;  of  June  16, 1881, 
on  the  certificates  of  capacity  for  primary  teachers ;  of  June  16, 1881,' on 
free  primary  instruction;  of  March  28,  1882,  on  obligatory  primary  in- 
struction ;  of  March  20,  1883,  on  the  augmentation  of  grants  and  advances 
for  the  treasury  of  the  schools. 

1  He  entrusted  Foreign  Affairs  to  M.  Challemel-Lacour,  the  Navy  to 
M.  Ch.  Brun,  War  to  General  Thibaudin ;  we  shall  see  under  what  con- 
ditions these  three  portfolios  changed  hands  shortly  afterwards.  His 
other  colleagues  were  MM.  Waldeck-Rousseau,  Martin-Feuillee,  Tirard, 


140  THE  EVOLUTION  OF  FRANCE. 

ill-timed  zeal  of  an  exalted  functionary,  on  the  occasion 
of  the  manifesto  published  by  Prince  Napoleon,  had 
created  an  agitation  in  connection  with  the  "question 
of  the  princes."  Jules  Ferry,  who  was  in  haste,  first 
of  all,  to  put  an  end  to  this  movement  which  he  consid- 
ered useless  and  dangerous,  retired  the  Due  d'Aumale, 
the  Due  de  Chartres,  and  the  Due  d'Alen9on  from 
active  service.  He  felt  some  regret,  no  doubt,  but 
he  did  not  hesitate  over  it ;  in  his  eyes,  it  was  of 
secondary  importance.  In  practice,  everything,  in  his 
opinion,  fell  into  two  categories  :  necessary  measures, 
which  he  defended  with  a  tenacity,  a  perseverance,  a 
strength  of  will  which  no  other  statesman  ever  sur- 
passed ;  and  secondary  measures,  to  which  he  very  will- 
ingly sacrificed  his  personal  preferences.  This  explains 
the  accusation  of  weakness  for  which  this  very  strong 
man  sometimes  found  himself  the  target.  Moreover,  it 
was  his  opinion  that,  in  the  existing  condition  of  the 
two  Chambers  and  of  the  republican  party,  "the  fron- 
tier of  the  majority  might  be  moved  greatly  for- 
ward, and  to  a  great  distance  in  the  direction  of  the 
Left."i 

Every  time  that  the  radicals  found  themselves  face 
to  face  with  a  new  grouping  of  the  ministry,  they  pre- 
sented a  proposal  of  amnesty,  in  order  to  take  a  census 
of  themselves,  and  to  inspire  the  Cabinet  with  salutary 
fear.  This  time  the  amnesty  was  rejected  by  381  votes 
against  84.  It  was  soon  seen  that  this  ministry  did 
not  resemble  the  others,  that  it  intended  to  rule,  and 
possessed  the  means  of  doing  so ;  it  had  an  opinion  to 
give  on  everything,  and  it  dreaded  no  debate.      The 

Meline,  Baynal,  H^risson ;  the  last-named  held  a  more  advanced  shade  of 
opinion. 

1  Speech  at  the  banquet  of  the  National  Circle,  March  9, 1883. 


THE  JULES  FEBRY  MINISTRY.  141 

law  suspending  the  irremovability  of  the  magistrates, 
the  laws  about  professional  syndicates,  about  the  second 
offence  of  criminals,  about  the  election  of  consular 
judges,  the  liberty  of  funerals,  the  creation  of  fortress 
artillery,  and  the  protection  of  minors,  gave  rise  to  ex- 
haustive and  brilliant  discussions.  As  several  bishops 
censured  and  prohibited  the  manuals  of  civic  education 
which  the  University  had  approved,  Jules  Ferry  took 
occasion  to  state  his  ecclesiastical  policy,  which  re- 
mained, though  with  less  ardor  than  during  his  first 
ministry,  respectful  towards  religion,  but  distinctly 
anti-clerical.  The  Council  of  State,  when  consulted  as 
to  the  legitimacy  of  the  suspension  of  episcopal  salaries, 
in  case  of  rebellion  against  the  State,  pronounced  an 
opinion  in  the  affirmative,  and  M.  Martin-Feuillee, 
Minister  of  Justice  and  of  Public  Worship,  when  called 
upon  to  take  part  in  the  debate  opened  in  Parliament, 
did  so  in  terms  which  left  no  doubt  as  to  the  anxiety  of 
the  government  not  to  permit  any  encroachment  upon 
the  civil  power. ^ 

Financial  problems  forced  themselves  upon  the  atten- 
tion of  those  in  power.  It  was  no  longer  possible  to 
realize  the  programme  which  M.  Ldon  Say,  Minister  of 
Finance  in  the  Freycinet  Cabinet,  had  drawn  up  in 
three  words  :  "  Neither  conversion,  nor  issue,  nor  re- 
sumption." The  conversion  from  five  per  cent  to  four 
and  a  half  per  cent  was  imperatively  necessary.  On 
this  occasion  Jules  Ferry  made  an  important  speech 
which   displayed    the   many   capacities   of  his   mind.^ 

1  It  is  to  be  observed  that  the  language  of  M.  Martin-Feuillee,  on  this 
occasion,  in  nowise  differs  from  that  uttered,  later  on,  under  analogous 
circumstances,  by  M.  Ribot  and  M.  Casimir-Perier ;  the  theory  of  the  gov- 
ernment upon  this  point  remained  much  the  same. 

2  Conversion,  said  the  explanation  of  the  motives  of  the  projected  law, 
is  accomplished  in  fact ;  it  only  requires  sanction.    The  five  per  cent  loan, 


142  THE  EVOLUTION  OF  FRANCE. 

Then  came  the  debate  on  the  contracts  with  the  rail- 
ways. The  negotiations,  which  were  opened  as  early 
as  the  month  of  March  by  M.  Raynal,  did  not  come  to 
an  end  until  June  and  July.  It  was  a  question  of 
obtaining  from  the  companies  the  reimbursement  in 
advance  of  the  sums  which  they  owed,  together  with  a 
modification  of  tariffs,  either  for  passengers  or  for 
merchandise,  —  modifications  which  would  lower  the 
sum-total  of  receipts  ;  moreover,  it  was  necessary  to  as- 
sociate them  with  the  construction  of  the  new  network. 
But  the  companies  are  not  all  on  the  same  footing. 
Some  have  never  had  recourse  to  guaranteeing  interest ; 
others  would  be  unable,  even  at  the  present  time,  to 
balance  their  accounts  without  subsidies  from  the  State. 
From  the  moment  when  it  became  an  imperative  neces- 
sity to  break  with  the  system  of  blind  confidence  which 
had  been  followed  since  1878,  and  confess  the  inability 


issued  in  June,  1871,  at  82.50,  at  84.50  in  July,  1874,  was  at  par  beginning 
with  1875.  Since  then  it  has  been  quoted  at  from  115-120  francs  and 
to-day  it  is  in  the  neighborhood  of  114.  That  is  to  say,  the  price  of  money 
is  sufficiently  low  to  prevent  the  investor  seeking  five  per  cent  any  longer 
from  government  bonds.  On  the  other  hand,  he  e\idently  expects  con- 
version ;  for  if  he  did  not,  the  five  per  cent  bonds  would  be  quoted  at  a 
price  equal  in  proportion  to  that  of  the  three  per  cents,  or  about  132 
francs.  Why  should  the  government  refuse  the  profit  of  this  legitimate 
operation?  M.  Allain-Targe  demanded  the  conversions  at  three  per 
cent ;  but  that  would  have  augmented  the  nominal  capital  of  the  debt  by 
nearly  three  milliards,  and  deprived  the  State  of  the  profit  of  the  succes- 
sive conversions.  It  was  also  foreseen  that  the  forty-one  per  cent  would 
soon  win  the  quotation  of  the  six  per  cent,  or  very  nearly  that.  "  Under 
these  conditions,  demands  for  reimbursement  at  par  are  not  to  be  feared, 
for  it  is  inconceivable  that  any  one  should  prefer  to  have  100  francs  in 
ready  money  rather  than  receive  from  the  government  a  new  bond  which 
can  be  sold  any  day  for  110  or  111  francs."  At  last,  in  order  to  give  free 
scope  to  the  new  four  and  one-half  per  cent  loan,  it  was  proposed  to 
guarantee  it,  for  five  years,  against  all  fresh  conversions.  The  commis- 
sion raised  the  limit  to  ten  years,  and  prepared  for  partial  future  conver- 
sions by  the  expedient  of  drawing  lots,  and  issuing  the  four  and  one-half 
per  cent  bonds  in  series. 


THE  JULES  FEE  BY  MINISTRY.  143 

of  the  State  to  defray  the  expenses  with  which  it  had 
been  saddled,  the  simplest  expedient  would  have  been 
the  immediate  cessation  of  the  works  which  had  been 
undertaken  for  the  execution  of  the  Freycinet  plan.^ 
But,  by  acting  thus,  grave  political  economic  and 
strategic  interests  were  left  in  suspense.  Hence  the 
contracts  were  courageous  and  useful. 

Certain  of  the  stipulations  did,  it  is  true,  appear  to 
be  a  little  illusory  ;  the  amount  of  profits  beyond  whose 
limit  the  State  was  to  begin  to  share  with  the  share- 
holders was  lowered,  but  it  is  doubtful  whether  that 
sum  was  ever  exceeded  ;  rediictions  of  tariff  or  improve- 
ments of  working-stock  would  have  been  more  easily 
carried  out.  The  maintenance  of  the  right  of  resump- 
tion seemed  illusory,  also  ;  for  the  indemnity  to  be  paid 
for  the  material  and  stock  became  the  greater  since  the 
State  would  no  longer  have  any  claims  upon  the  com- 
panies, as  the  latter  freed  themselves  from  their  debts 
beforehand.  And  finally,  the  guarantee  of  the  interest 
existed  none  the  less  for  having  been  transformed  ;  the 
competition  of  the  State  system,  or  simply  the  expenses 
which  would  fall  upon  the  companies  to  the  account  of 
the  new  lines,  for  the  most  part  unproductive,  would 
effect  a  reduction  of  the  receipts,  and  the  State  would 
find  itself  forced  to  make  up  that  difference  between 
the  real  profits  and  the  dividends  guaranteed.  In  spite 
of  this,  "without  being  so  advantageous  for  the  State 
as  one  might  have  supposed,  at  first  sight,  the  contracts, 
it  was  said,  represented  the  maximum  of  possible  con- 
cessions on  the  part  of  the  companies,  in  view  of  the 
deplorable  conditions  under  which  the  State  had  allowed 
itself  to  be  driven  to  the  wall  before  contracting  with 

1  Out  of  44,000  kilometres  of  railways  decided  upon,  there  were  still 
only  29,369  in  operation. 


144  THE  EVOLUTION  OF  FRANCE. 

them  and  from  the  moment  when  it  would  not  resign 
itself  to  putting  a  stop  to  the  works."  ^ 

Setting  aside  the  violent  declamations  against  the 
"plutocracy"  and  "industrial  feudalism,"  the  accusa- 
tions of  trickery  and  of  "  bribery,"  which  certain  jour- 
nals acquired  the  habit  of  launching  against  the  govern- 
ment at  haphazard,  an  assault  was  made  by  those  who 
advocated  the  purchasing  of  the  railways  by  the  govern- 
ment. Among  these,  M.  Allain-Targ^  ingeniously 
maintained  that  it  would  be  sufficient  to  buy  in  the 
Orleans  line,  in  order  to  break  the  formidable  group  of 
the  six  great  companies;  the  Orleans  line  which,  "touch- 
ing the  West,  dominating  the  South,  running  parallel 
with  the  Paris-Lyons,  would  have  authorized  all  experi- 
ments, all  improvements,  outside  the  narrow  bounds  of 
private  interest."  In  spite  of  the  repugnance  of  many 
deputies  to  cast  a  vote  with  which  they  might  be 
reproached  later  on,  a  modest  majority  of  200  votes  up- 
held the  government  for  the  vote  of  the  six  contracts, 
and  the  Ferry  Cabinet  emerged  with  honor  from  this 
laborious  session,  having  won  back  its  majority  without 
sacrificing  any  part  of  its  programme,  and  without  hav- 
ing been  thrown  into  the  minority  on  any  important 
point. 2  The  elections  to  the  General  Councils  were 
influenced  by  this  result ;  in  eight  departments  the 
majority  passed  from  the  Right  to  the  Left ;  oiily  one 
socialist  was  elected,  in  Nievre.^ 

1  M.  Andre  Daniel,  L'Ann^e  Politique,  1883. 

2  A  single  ballot  made  a  personal  attack  on  the  Minister  of  Marine, 
who  being,  moreover,  in  bad  health,  resigned,  and  was  replaced  by 
Admiral  Peyron. 

*  After  the  elections  of  1874,  the  General  Councils  comprised  1469  repub- 
licans, and  1531  conservatives ;  after  the  elections  of  1877,  1607  republi- 
cans, and  1393  conservatives ;  after  the  elections  of  1880,  1906  republicans, 
and  1004  conservatives ;  after  the  elections  of  1883,  2129  republicans,  and 
869  conservatives. 


THE  JULES  FERRY  MINISTRY.  145 

The  enemies  of  the  ministry  would  gladly  have 
attacked  its  foreign  policy ;  but  they  feared  to  offend 
public  sentiment,  which  was  beginning  to  show  sensi- 
tiveness on  that  point.  On  March  13, 1883,  M.  Mancini 
had  given  the  Italian  Parliament  to  understand  that  a 
regular  alliance  united  Germany,  Austria,  and  Italy. 
This  revelation  had  made  the  tour  not  only  of  the  uni- 
versal press,  but  also  of  the  parliaments  of  Europe.  At 
Budapest  M.  Tisza  had  been  questioned ;  at  West- 
minster, the  government  had  been  called  on  to  explain, 
and  we  have  already  seen  the  fine  reply  which  M. 
Challemel-Lacour  made  to  a  question  that  was  put  to 
him  on  this  subject  by  the  Due  de  Broglie.  The 
Minister  of  Foreign  Affairs  now  found  his  footsteps  fol- 
lowed up  by  English  diplomacy,  which  was  anxious  to 
counteract  our  action ;  ^  on  the'  other  hand,  our  colonial 
awakening  seemed  to  win  for  us  the  sympathy  of  Ger- 
many, either  because  Prince  Bismarck  was  pleased  to 
descry  upon  the  French  horizon  anxieties  and,  perhaps, 
distant  complications,  or  because  he  cherished  the  hope 
of  future  annexations  which  would  be  easier  to  Ger- 
manize than  Alsace-Lorraine.  Consequently,  great  sur- 
prise was  caused  by  the  abrupt  attacks  of  the  German 
press,  called  forth  by  the  journey  of  the  Minister  of 
War  in  the  East.  The  members  of  the  Reichstag  were 
suddenly  convoked,  while  the  newspapers  gave  them- 
selves over  to  a  perfect  flood  of  insults  and  calumnies 


1  Not  only  in  Tunis,  in  the  matter  of  the  suppression  of  capitulations, 
but  also  in  regard  to  the  appointment  of  the  Governor  of  Lebanon ;  the 
powers  of  Rustem  Pasha  were  on  the  point  of  expiring;  he  had  shown 
himself  very  hostile  to  France,  who  opposed  their  renewal.  The  candidate 
presented  by  the  Porte  was  accepted  by  France,  Germany,  Austria,  and 
Italy;  rejected  without  plausible  pretexts  by  England  and  Russia,  who 
were  favorable  to  Rustem  Pasha.  France,  backed  up  by  Austria  and 
Germany,  overcame  this  opposition. 

L 


146  THE  EVOLUTION  OF  FRANCE. 

against  France ;  the  Diritto,  the  Daily  News,  and  even 
the  Epoca,  joined  in  the  campaign  headed  by  the  Nord- 
Deutsche  Zeitung.  The  Times  was  the  first  to  perceive 
that  there  was  no  justification  for  it.  However,  pub- 
lic opinion  in  France  was  not  stirred  by  it,  and  the 
press  preserved  a  surprising  calm.  The  Reichstag 
received  notice  —  of  a  simple  conmiercial  treaty  with 
Spain,  and  everything  calmed  down.  These  alarms,  on 
which  so  many  conjectures  were  based,  seemed  to  have 
been  casts  of  the  lead  with  which  the  chancellor  was 
fond  of  taking  soundings  of  public  opinion,  in  order 
that  he  might  judge  of  its  inflammability  ;  they  pos- 
sessed the  double  advantage,  in  his  eyes,  of  keeping  him 
well  informed,  and  of  maintaining  in  the  rest  of  the 
universe  the  impression  that  France  alone  menaced  the 
general  repose. 

Nevertheless,  the  Extreme  Left  organized,  on  the  oc- 
casion of  the  visit  to  Paris  of  the  King  of  Spain,  a 
demonstration  which  furnished  the  press  with  an  unfort- 
unate opportunity  to  destroy  the  good  effect  produced 
by  its  attitude.  As  Alphonso  XII. 's  journey  to  Austria 
and  Germany  had  seemed  to  arouse  some  feeling  in 
France,  the  young  sovereign,  who  was  very  fond  of  our 
country,  decided  to  stop  there  on  his  way  home.  He 
came  there  from  Berlin  where,  according  to  custom. 
Emperor  William  had  appointed  him  to  be  the  honorary 
colonel  of  a  German  regiment.  Now,  this  regiment 
was  in  garrison  at  Strasbourg.  Nothing  more  was 
needed  to  permit  the  instigators  of  disorder  to  accom- 
plish their  detestable  work.  Alphonso  XII.  arrived  on 
September  29,  in  Paris,  and  traversed  the  capital  ac- 
companied by  insults  ;  he  was  nicknamed  the  "  Uhlan 
King."  The  President  of  the  Republic  was  obliged  to 
call  upon  him,  and  beg  him  to  accept  the  apologies  of 


I 


THE  JULES  FERRY  MINISTRY.  147 

France,  and  consent  to  be  present  at  the  state  dinner 
given  in  his  honor  at  the  Elys^e.  The  King  consented, 
and  remained  in  Paris  until  October  1.  This  painful 
incident  aroused  indignation  abroad,  while  all  good 
Frenchmen  were  heartily  ashamed  of  it.^ 

Jules  Ferry  did  not  waste  his  time  in  recriminations  ; 
only  one  minister,  General  Thibaudin,  had  refused  to  go 
to  meet  the  King  of  Spain  on  his  arrival ;  he  demanded 
his  instant  resignation,  and  replaced  him  by  General 
Campenon.  Henceforth,  war  was  declared  between  the 
President  of  the  Council  and  the  radicals.  The  latter 
got  up  tumultuous  meetings,  in  which  the  impeach- 
ment of  the  ministry  was  voted  for,  —  a  wholly  inoper- 
ative resolution  which  necessarily  increased  its  credit 
with  those  of  moderate  views. ^  Moreover,  the  moment 
was  badly  chosen  for  party  quarrels  and  internal  dis- 
sensions ;  a  European  war  might  break  out  any  day. 
Russia  and  Germany  were  at  odds  everywhere  in  the 
East ;  in  Bulgaria,  in  Servia,  in  Roumania,  in  Greece, 
Germanophil  tendencies  were  opposed  by  Slavophil  ten- 
dencies, and  all  minds  were  strained  with  the  expec- 

1  The  desire  to  overthrow  the  ministry  made  itself  apparent  through 
the  fictitious  patriotic  anxieties  put  forward  by  the  organizers  of  the 
manifestation.  The  famous  Petite  France  of  Tours,  the  organ  of  M.  Wil- 
son, son-in-law  of  the  President  of  the  Republic,  published  despatches  from 
its  "  special  correspondent "  of  Mont-sous-Vaudrey,  declaring  that  M. 
Grevy  had  refused  to  receive  the  King  of  Spain,  and  that  the  President  of 
the  Council  was  trying  to  force  him  to  it.  Hei-e,  also,  must  be  noted  the 
satisfaction  shown  by  certain  organs  of  the  Right,  although  the  responsi- 
bility of  this  incident  falls  principally  upon  the  Extreme  Left.  The  Pays 
went  so  far  as  to  appeal  to  foreign  intervention  to  extract  us  from  the 
"republican  hole,"  and  congratulated  the  "  happy  mortals  "  governed  by 
the  German  Emperor.  This  time,  party  hatred  had  been  sufficiently 
strong  to  cause  men  to  forget  their  fatherland. 

2  At  Havre,  on  October  14,  Jules  Ferry  made  a  great  speech,  in  which 
he  declared  that  he  was  ready  to  maintain  the  struggle.  The  radicals 
were  encouraged,  on  their  side,  by  the  success  which  they  achieved  in 
four  partial  elections. 


148  THE  EVOLUTION  OF  FRANCE. 

tation  of  some  event  which  should  set  fire  to  the 
powder. 

The  opposition  felt  more  at  ease  on  the  subject  of  the 
colonies ;  the  very  nature  of  the  interests  at  stake,  the 
distance  to  the  theatre  of  hostilities,  allowed  it  to  agi- 
tate public  opinion,  and  to  suggest  to  it  that  "  policy  of 
the  hare  on  her  form,  who  sees  things  in  exaggerated 
shape,  and  sees  them  indistinctly,"  ^  from  which  our 
colonies  have  so  greatly  suffered.  Moreover,  the  Presi- 
dent of  the  Council  gave  a  handle  to  criticism,  by  the 
sparing  amount  of  his  communications  ;  he  felt  that,  in 
order  to  accomplish  his  work,  he  was  compelled  to  act, 
in  a  manner,  without  the  knowledge  of  the  masses,  be- 
cause he  knew  them  to  be  densely  ignorant  of  African 
and  Asiatic  affairs,  and  hostile  to  distant  enterprises 
which  could  not  be  converted  into  immediate  profit. 
But  with  a  little  more  art  and  apparent  good-will, 
above  all,  by  displaying  more  readiness  to  communicate 
news,  he  might  have  calmed  their  impatience.  But  on 
this  occasion,  when  Parliament  reassembled,  on  October 
23,  1883,  it  found  itself  enlightened  by  an  exposition 
of  the  situation  of  affairs  in  Tonkin,  so  luminous,  so 
frank,  so  precise,  that  it  was  impossible,  in  view  of  the 
growing  exactions  of  China,  to  refuse  to  the  govern- 
ment the  support  which  it  needed. ^  The  appropriations 
were  voted,  and  the  year  ended  with  the  capture  of 
Son-Tay. 

The  labor  question  also  served  as  a  battle-ground. 

1  Jules  Ferry,  Le  Tonkin  et  la  Mere  Patrie. 

2  Jules  Ferry,  in  a  manner,  forced  the  Extreme  Left  to  take  to  the 
tribune  the  question  which  it  had  announced,  and  which  miscarried;  325 
members,  against  155,  carried  a  vote  of  complete  confidence.  In  the 
ballot  for  the  Tonkin  appropriations,  the  Right  abstained  from  voting. 
Marshal  Canrobert  in  the  Senate,  Monseigneur  Freppel  in  the  Chamber, 
alone  voted  "for  the  flag." 


THE  JULES  FERRY  MINISTRY.  149 

At  the  beginning  of  1884,  propositions  tending  to 
"ameliorate  the  lot  of  workingmen"  followed  each 
other  with  incredible  copiousness.  Men  affected  to  be- 
lieve in  a  general  crisis  which  was  paralyzing  commerce 
and  manufactures  ;  while  precisely  the  last  months 
of  the  year  1883  had  been  marked  by  a  sort  of  revival 
in  business.^  Mutuality,  socialism,  either  Christian 
or  atheistic,  the  reform  of  the  taxes,  protectionism, — 
everything  was  discussed.  Jules  Ferry  defended  the 
liberty  of  work.  "  We  think,"  said  he,  "  that  the  only 
profound  social  reforms  are  those  which  begin  by  the 
reform  of  ideas  and  manners,  and  which  have  their 
source  in  individual  activity,  initiative,  and  foresight. 
What,  then,  is  the  part  which  the  State  plays?  Is  it 
that  of  substituting  itself  for  individual  initiative  and 
foresight?  No,  it  is  that  of  encouraging,  aiding,  sub- 
sidizing, if  necessary,  their  development ;  never  of  sub- 
stituting itself  for  them."  All  these  obstacles  did  not 
impede  legislative  work  ;  it  was  accomplished  with  more 
rapidity  than  under  other  ministries  which  had  been 
less  attacked,  so  greatly  do  a  firm  will  and  a  definite 
line  of  conduct  facilitate  the  successful  working  of  a 
government.  The  municipal  law  was  promulgated  on 
April  5  ;  ^  there  were  still  important  discussions  on 
primary  instruction  ;  laws  were  passed  concerning  the 
conditional  liberation  of  convicts,  the  sale  of  the  Crown 
diamonds,  the  creation  of  six  schools  for  the  children  of 
soldiers  ;  a  convention  was  concluded  with  the  Bey  of 

1  It  is  just  to  state  that  this  revival  did  not  last ;  a  little  later  it  became 
necessary  to  consent  to  a  loan  of  350,000,000  francs,  which  was  subscribed 
for  only  three  and  a  quarter  times  over. 

2  It  contained  a  clause  of  considerable  range,  which  certainly  has  not, 
so  far,  resulted  in  any  great  profit,  but  which,  nevertheless,  holds  the 
germ  of  a  beneficent  revolution :  the  power  granted  to  the  communes  of 
any  canton  of  uniting  their  efforts  for  enterprises  undertaken  at  their 
joint  cost,  in  the  public  interest. 


150  THE  EVOLUTION  OF  FRANCE. 

Tunis  for  the  conversion  of  the  Tunisian  debt.  The 
municipal  elections  of  the  4th  and  11th  of  May,  1884, 
gave  satisfactory  results  ;  ^  abroad,  as  well  as  at  home, 
the  Cabinet  which  had  just  concluded  the  treaty  of 
Tien-Tsin  was  solid  and  respected. 

Jules  Ferry  had  promised  a  partial  revision,  in  order 
to  satisfy  what  he  regarded  as  a  profound  current  of 
public  opinion. 2  He  warded  off  the  general  revision 
which  the  radicals  demanded,  and  himself  presented 
(March  24,  1884)  the  project  for  a  law  which  limited 
to  four  points  the  modifications  which  could  be  made 
in  the  Constitution  ;  the  form  of  government  was 
definitely  settled,  and  placed  beyond  the  range  of  any 
discussion  whatever  ;  its  constitutional  character  was 
withdrawn  from  the  law  which  regulated  the  manner  of 
election  of  senators;^  the  legislative  prerogatives  of 
both  Chambers  were  definitely  regulated  ;  and,  finally, 
>th6  paragraph  which  ordered  public  prayers  at  the  re- 
assembling of  the  Chambers  was  suppressed.  The 
Congress  opened  at  Versailles,  in  the  month  of  August; 
regrettable  scenes  took  place  ;  the  most  unexpected 
amendments  were  proposed  with  the  only  too  evident 
object  of  preventing  settlements,  of  confusing  the  de- 
bates, and  of  casting  discredit  upon  the  Assembly.  A 
Byzantine  discussion  sprang  up  as  to  the  great  and  the 
little  "  quorum  "  (that  is  to  say,  the  number  upon  which 
the  majority  was  to  be  calculated  ;  calculated  upon  the 
legal  tiotal  of  the  congressional  forces,  it  was  429  vbtes  ; 

'  1  The  conservatives  retained  their  places;  the  radicals  lost,  to  the  ad- 
vantage of  the  moderate.  In  Paris,  the  situation  remained  much  the 
same.  The  Council  comprised  3i  autonomists,  27  opportunists,  7  inde- 
pendents, 10  reactionaries,  1  possibilist  socialist,  1  revolutionary  socialist. 

2  No  doubt,  also,  for  the  purpose  of  relieving  the  numerous  deputies 
who  had  inscribed  the  revision  upon  their  electoral  platforms. 

3  This  law  was  destined  to  be  modified,  later  on,  like  an  ordinary  law, 
and  the  irremovability  of  the  senators  suppressed. 


JULES    SIMON,    MINISTER,    SENATOR,    AND     MEMBER    OF    THE 
FRENCH     ACADEMY. 


f^  Of  THl"^^ 

[UFIVBRSITTl 


THE  JULES  FERRY  MINISTRY.  151 

calculated  upon  the  real  total,  it  was  only  420  votes). 
But  when  the  adversaries  of  the  ministry  failed  to  pre- 
vent the  Congress  fulfilling  its  mission,  they  described 
it  as  a  "  defiance  hurled  at  democracy,"  and  published 
a  noisy  manifesto  of  protestation.  For  the  first  time, 
Jules  Ferry  had  appeared  not  undecided,  but  as  if  he 
had  lost  his  bearings  ;  ^  perhaps  he  was  astonished  at 
that  isolation  which  was  beginning  for  him  and  which 
he  learned,  later  on,  to  bear  so  valiantly.  In  propor- 
tion as  the  minister  waxed  greater,  and  his  energetic 
figure  stood  out  more  and  more  from  the  low  relief  of 
the  government,  a  void  was  created  around  him  ;  in  the 
case  of  certain  of  his  adversaries,  opposition  degener- 
ated into  rage;  among  his  former  partisans,  jealousy  made 
its  ravages;  in  addition,  there  was  that  general  inca- 
pacity for  supporting  in  a  free  and  consecutive  manner 
any  government  whatever.  As  persuasion  and  reasoning 
did  not  act  with  sufficient  effect,  it  became  necessary  to 
employ  force,  that  force  of  language  which  bends  wills, 
but  does  not  prevent  their  rising  again  afterwards. 
Men  obeyed  Jules  Ferry  grumblingly,  and  in  the  long 
run  this  resulted,  in  the  ranks  of  the  majority,  in  the 
impression  of  slavery,  which  left  behind  it  dull  ran- 
cors in  their  hearts.  A  pungent  chapter  of  parliamen- 
tary psychology  might  be  written  about  the  Chamber  of 
1881.  History  will  say  of  it,  that  it  never  was  able  to 
understand,  or  to  second,  with  full  good-will,  the  man 
who  was  the  finest  incarnation  of  the  sentiments  of  the 
majority  among  its  members. 

^  This  was  the  epoch  when  the  law  of  divorce,  eloquently  combated  by 
Jules  Simon,  was  being  discussed  in  the  Senate,  and  when  the  Chamber 
was  studying  the  organization  of  the  three  years'  service,  and  passing  the 
first  protectionist  law  raising  the  duties  on  sugars  which  had  been  lowered 
in  1880.  These  great  evolutions,  both  military  and  economical,  do  not 
appear  to  have  been  the  object  of  sufficiently  consecutive  attention  on  the 
part  of  the  President  of  the  Council. 


162  THE  EVOLUTION   OF  FRANCE. 

As  colonial  instincts  had  awakened,  little  by  little, 
appropriations  asked  for  for  Madagascar  were  granted 
without  excessive  hesitation  ;  on  the  other  hand,  there 
was  a  tendency  to  let  go  the  prey  for  the  shadow,  to 
abandon  Tonkin  for  the  sake  of  intervening  in  Egypt. 
Tonkin  was  too  far  away ;  the  movements  of  our  troops 
there  could  be  followed  only  through  the  medium  of 
fantastic  information  of  chroniclers  who  were  badly 
prepared  to  guide  the  public.  The  surprise  of  Bac-Le, 
the  bombardment  of  Kelung,  caused  emotion  in  Paris ; 
the  departure  from  Shanghai  of  the  Chinese  plenipo- 
tentiaries (August  18,  1884),  and  the  ultimatum  pre- 
sented by  M.  Patenotre,  suggested  hints  of  a  general 
and  merciless  war  between  France  and  China.  For 
lack  of  knowledge  as  to  what  the  river  Min  was,  and 
in  what  manner  it  was  defended,  the  admirable  mili- 
tary feat  accomplished  by  Admiral  Courbet  at  Fou- 
Tcheou  was  not  appreciated,  at  first.  One  would  have 
said  that  between  Tonkin  and  Paris  all  proportions 
became  distorted,  all  fears  exaggerated,  and  that  all 
judgments  went  astray.  A  single  fact  dominated  the 
situation,  and  it  was  brutal  and  clear  to  every  eye : 
France  was  at  war  with  a  great  power,  without  Par- 
liament having  been  called  upon  to  give  its  opinion. ^ 
To-day  we  can  estimate  with  cool  heads  the  chain  of 
circumstances ;  but  it  will  readily  be  imagined  that  a 
certain  amount  of  emotion  reigned,  at  the  moment,  in 
face  of  a  situation  which  could  not  be  explained. 

Europe  kept  her  eyes  riveted  on  France ;  the  strug- 
gle  manfully  maintained   by  Jules   F'erry  to  organize 

1  At  the  news  of  the  capture  of  Fou-Tcheou,  M.  Barodet,  President  of 
the  group  of  the  Extreme  Left,  wrote  to  the  President  of  the  Republic, 
demanding  the  immediate  convocation  of  Parliament.  M.  Grevy  replied, 
in  a  strictly  constitutional  manner,  that  he  would  transmit  the  letter  to 
the  President  of  the  Council,  who,  alone,  was  responsible. 


THE  JULES  FEEBT  MINISTBT.  153 

parties  and  found  a  true  parliamentary  government 
interested  her ;  but,  above  all,  she  noted,  with  an  in- 
describable sensation  of  curiosity,  the  sort  of  relaxation 
which  could  be  divined  in  the  relations  between  France 
and  Germany.  This  relaxation,  which  had  already 
been  marked  in  the  affairs  of  Tunis,^  had  been  accentu- 
ated at  the  London  conference  upon  Egyptian  affairs, 
—  a  conference,  moreover,  which  ended  without  re- 
sults. It  was  plain  that  M.  de  Bismarck  viewed 
with  sympathy  our  efforts  at  colonization ;  he  became 
colonial  himself,  and  took  possession  of  the  Came- 
roons  and  of  Angra-Pequena,  and  again  routed  the 
diplomats  by  one  of  those  right-about-faces  in  which 
his  genius  delighted. ^  What  the  enemies  of  the 
minister  already  pretended  to  call  the  Franco-German 
understanding  was  further  defined  by  the  convoca- 
tion of  the  Conference  of  Berlin  for  the  commercial 
freedom  of  the  African  rivers,  —  the  Niger  and  the 
Congo.  This  conference  opened  on  November  15  and 
proceeded  to  important  partitions. 

Nevertheless,  the  parliamentary  battle  became,  with 
every  passing  day,  more  arduous  to  maintain.  For 
the  sake  of  winning  back  those  who  hesitated,  and  of 
obtaining  the  appropriations  for  Tonkin  (sixteen  raill- 

1  Germany  had  been  the  first  to  renounce  her  privileges,  judicial  and 
other;  as  early  as  the  spring  of  1882,  she  sent  a  new  Consul-General,  the 
explorer  Nachtigal,  who  went  to  Bardo  in  the  carriage  of  the  Resident  Gen- 
eral, in  order  to  be  presented  by  him  to  the  Bey.  Germany,  therefore,  did 
not  content  herself  with  urging  us  on  to  an  expedition  which  might  turn 
out  profitable  to  her ;  by  its  consequences  she  upheld  us  after  our  success, 
as  she  did  before  it.  This  ceremony  made  its  mark  in  the  annals  of  the 
protectorate ;  shortly  afterward,  Lord  Granville,  in  his  turn,  ordered  the 
English  consul  not  to  address  himself  to  the  Bey's  government  otherwise 
than  through  the  medium  of  the  Resident  General  of  France. 

2  Nevertheless,  this  did  not  prevent  his  joining  his  colleagues  of  Russia 
and  Austria,  M.  de  Giers  and  Count  Kalnoky,  as  usual.  The  interview 
took  place  on  September  15,  1884,  at  Skiernievicz  (Russian  Poland). 


164  THE  EVOLUTION   OF  FRANCE. 

ions  were  necessary  at  the  end  of  1884,  and  forty-three 
millions  for  the  year  1885),  Jules  Ferry  was  obliged 
to  order  the  publication  of  all  the  diplomatic  archives 
which  related  to  Tonkin ;  no  one  could  find  anything 
in  them  with  which  to  quarrel ;  ^  the  firmness,  clear- 
ness, and  moderation  of  the  President  of  the  Council 
secured  for  him  a  majority  of  100  votes,  but  at  the 
price  of  what  efforts !  This  majority  resembled  a 
troop  of  schoolboys  in  the  schoolroom :  it  had  to  be 
watched  constantly,  and  a  state  of  defence,  at  once 
friendly  and  severe,  had  to  be  maintained  towards  it. 
Thanks  to  a  vote  unexpectedly  taken,  the  Extreme 
Left  had,  with  the  support  of  the  Right,  established 
direct  universal  suffrage  for  the  election  of  senators; 
the  moderates  were  seized  with  keen  anxiety  when  this 
unforeseen  result  was  announced.  The  peril  was  great. 
Without  the  loss  of  a  moment,  the  President  of  the 
Council  carried  to  the  Senate  the  law  which  re-estab- 
lished the  suffrage  of  two  degrees,  and  bringing  it 
before  the  Chamber,  he  got  them  to  revoke  their  de- 
cision ;  six  days  sufficed  for  this  new  sort  of  campaign. 
On  January  1,  1885,  the  ministry  entered  upon  the 
third  year  of  its  existence  ;  ^  in  the  senatorial  elections 
of  January  25,  it  won  a  fresh  triumph ;  the  radical 
advocates  of  revision  failed,  and  the  moderate  repub- 
licans gained  twenty-two  seats  out  of  thirty-seven.^  A 
conflict  over  the  appropriations,  between  the  two  Cham- 

1  M.  CMmenceau  had  violently  attacked  the  President  of  the  Council, 
accusing  him  of  having  altered  an  important  document  afterwards.  It 
turned  out  that  the  whole  affair  was  confined  to  this  insignificant  correc- 
tion: "  I  believe  that  peace  is  possible,"  in  place  of  "  I  am  convinced  that 
I>eace  is  possible." 

2  M.  Maurice  Rouvier  had  just  been  appointed  Minister  of  Commerce, 
in  the  place  of  M.  Herisson.  A  little  later.  General  Campenon  gave  up  the 
War  portfolio,  which  was  taken  by  General  Lewal. 

*  Only  67  senators  out  of  300  remained  on  the  Right. 


THE  JULES  FERRY  MINISTRY.  165 

bers,  and  the  passage  of  the  law  establishing  general 
elections  filled  up  the  early  months  of  the  year,  the 
last  of  the  Jules  Ferry  Cabinet.  It  had  not  been 
possible  to  vote  upon  the  budget  for  1885  at  an  op- 
portune moment ;  a  peculiar  expedient  was  adopted,  — 
the  receipts  were  voted  upon  apart  from  the  expenses. 
After  having,  with  great  difficulty,  reconciled  the 
Chamber  and  the  Senate  on  the  question  of  certain  ap- 
propriations which  the  upper  Assembly  would  not  con- 
sent to  suppress,^  the  President  of  the  Council  busied 
himself  in  the  attempt  to  get  general  elections  accepted. 
Though  hostile  to  this  reform  in  1881,  he  now  perceived 
the  great  favor  which  it  enjoyed  in  public  opinion, 
and  did  not  deem  it  advisable  to  oppose  it  any  longer. 
The  law  was  passed  by  402  votes  (337  republicans  and 
65  monarchists)  against  91  (71  republicans  and  20 
monarchists). 

On  March  25  the  despatch  from  General  Briere  de 
risle,  dated  Hanoi,  reached  Paris:  the  loss  of  men 
which  it  foreshadowed  was  relatively  large  (260  men 
and  7  officers  killed  or  wounded) ;  the  excitement  was 
keen.  On  the  following  day,  March  26,  M.  Delafosse, 
in  questioning  the  Cabinet,  termed  the  Tonkin  expe- 
dition "the  most  foolish  and  criminal  of  enterprises," 
and,  although  a  fresh  telegram  had  greatly  diminished 
the  scope  of  the  preceding  one,  only  259  votes  against 
209  pronounced  in  favor  of  the  order  of  the  day,  pure 
and  simple  ;    the  majority  was  crumbling   away.     On 

1  It  was  a  question  of  the  seminary  scholarships,  the  salaries  of  the 
Bishop  of  Guadeloupe  and  of  the  members  of  the  Chapter  of  Saint-Denis, 
and,  finally,  of  the  Theological  Faculties.  The  appropriations  for  the 
department  of  Public  Worship  that  year  felt  the  effects  of  the  anti-clerical 
anxieties  of  the  Cliamber  of  Deputies.  As  soon  as  the  budget  of  1885  was 
settled,  M.  Tirard  brought  in  that  for  1886,  in  order  that  it  might  be  voted 
upon  before  the  elections. 


166  THE  EVOLUTION  OF  FRANCE. 

March  28  arrived  the  news  of  the  evacuation  of  Lang- 
son,  which  was  corrected,  in  the  same  manner,  on  the 
following  day,  by  a  more  reassuring  telegram.  But 
wild  panic  had  seized  upon  the  deputies.  The  govern- 
ment decided  to  ask  Parliament  for  two  hundred  mill- 
ions, and  to  send  to  Tonkin  ten  thousand  men  taken 
from  the  Algerian  contingent,  or  recruited  by  means 
of  voluntary  enlistments.  The  groups  put  their  heads 
together ;  the  lack  of  composure  was  general.  The 
astonishing  idea  occurred  to  some  one  of  requesting 
the  President  of  the  Council  to  resign  before  the  ses- 
sion, by  way  of  a  public  apology.  The  presidents  of 
the  Republican  Union  and  of  the  Democratic  Union, 
who  applied  to  him  in  this  sense,  were  not  well  re- 
ceived. Jules  Ferry  intended  to  appear  before  the 
Assembly,  with  his  head  held  high.  On  March  30,  in 
fact,  he  brought  in  the  demand  for  appropriations  and 
uttered  the  following  words :  "  In  order  not  to  inject 
into  a  debate  which  should  remain  exclusively  patriotic 
and  national  any  consideration  of  secondary  rank;  in 
order  to  unite  in  a  common  effort  all  those  who,  upon 
whatever  bench  they  sit  and  to  whatever  opinion  they 
hold,  set  the  greatness  of  the  country  and  the  honor 
of  the  flag  above  everything  else,  we  announce  to  you 
that  we  shall  not  consider  the  voting  of  the  appropria- 
tions as,  in  any  sense,  a  vote  of  confidence,  and  that  if 
the  energetic  policy  to  which  we  invite  you  is  approved 
by  you,  in  principle,  you  shall  freely  decide,  by  a  later 
vote,  to  what  hands  you  wish  to  confide  its  execution." 
The  deputies  did  not  heed  this  language ;  they  no 
longer  had  any  idea  of  what  the  situation  demanded ; 
they  overwhelmed  the  minister  with  insults.  That 
day  the  Palais- Bourbon  presented  the  most  disgraceful 
spectacle ;  a  little  while   before,  the   terrible   news  of 


THE  JULES  FERRY  MINISTRY.  157 

the  fall  of  Khartoum,  the  heavy  responsibility  for 
which  was  borne  by  the  British  government,  had  been 
received  at  Westminster  with  a  calm  dignity  that  the 
whole  body  of  public  opinion  had  reflected ;  the  con- 
trast was  all  the  more  distressing  for  the  friends  of 
France.  Only  149  republican  votes  defended  Jules 
Ferry  against  the  coalition  of  306  votes  which  fear  and 
hatred  arrayed  against  him.^ 

A  few  hours  before  his  fall,  as  to  which  he  had 
cherished  no  illusions,  Jules  Ferry  had  presided  over 
the  opening  meeting  of  the  conference  for  the  neutral- 
ization of  the  Suez  Canal.  Several  weeks  earlier,  the 
final  act  of  the  Conference  of  Berlin  had  scored 
another  success  for  our  diplomacy.  The  President  of 
the  Council  left  France  strong  and  respected  abroad; 
at  home  he  remained  the  true  leader  of  the  majority; 
people  understood  him  thoroughly  when  they  saw  his 
successor  continue  his  policy,  in  spite  of  himself,  and 
lay  claim  to  it.  Moreover,  public  opinion  was  educated 
up  to  the  mark  in  a  few  days.  The  telegram  which 
arrived  from  Hanoi  on  April  1  said:  "The  evacuation 
of  Langson,  in  consequence  of  the  wounding  of  Gen- 
eral de  Negrier,  seems  to  have  been  a  little  over-hasty ; 
the  situation  is,  on  the  whole,  better  than  the  exag- 
gerated reports  which  have  been  coming  in  here  for 
the  last  four  days  gave  reason  to  anticipate."  ^  On 
April  2  the  news  came  that  for  the  last  five  days 
Admiral  Courbet  had  occupied  the  anchorage  of  the 
Pescadores.  At  last,  on  April  4,  it  became  known 
that  the  preliminaries  of  peace  had   just  been  signed 

1  A  proposal  to  impeach  him,  supported  by  M.  Delafosse,  was,  fortu- 
nately, discarded. 

2  Colonel  Herbinger  had  lost  his  composure  to  such  a  degree  that  Gen- 
eral Briere  de  I'lsle  regarded  it  as  his  duty  to  submit  his  conduct  to  a 
committee  of  inquiry. 


158  THE  EVOLUTION  OF  FRANCE. 

at  Paris  between  France  and  China  on  the  basis  laid 
down  by  France,  and  without  China  having  been  led 
through  the  Langson  affair,  to  heighten  her  preten- 
sions. These  negotiations  had  been  in  progress,  se- 
cretly, since  March  22,  between  M.  Billot,  director 
of  political  affairs,  and  M.  Campbell,  the  representa- 
tive of  the  Celestial  Empire.  It  would  have  sufficed 
for  Jules  Ferry  to  make  them  public  to  justify  himself, 
but  he  had  preferred  to  maintain  silence,  as  much 
for  the  purpose  of  attaining  success  as  through  disdain 
for  his  enemies. 

He  felt  "  worn  out,"  and  acted  accordingly.  Had  he 
not  summed  up  his  meaning  on  that  point,  by  saying : 
"  I  know  well  that  this  system  of  incessant  attacks,  of 
daily  battles,  wears  men  out ;  but  what  are  men  good 
for,  if  not  to  be  worn  out  for  the  good,  for  the  beauti- 
ful, for  republican  liberty,  for  country  ?  "  And  later 
on,  he  was  to  write  the  following  profoundly  patriotic 
lines:  "When  a  political  man  leaves  behind  him  any 
durable  works,  he  must  make  up  his  mind  to  set  down 
his  popularity  with  profit  and  loss."^  Such  maxims, 
which  he  put  in  practice,  to  the  best  of  his  ability,  did 
not  spring  from  an  excess  of  resignation,  still  less  from 
any  lack  of  sensibility.  There  were  times  when  he 
winced,  in  spite  of  himself,  under  these  shafts :  "  Do 
not  they  know,"  he  cried,  in  the  Chamber,  in  the 
autumn  of  1884,  "that,  instead  of  reaping  what,  in 
former  days,  was  called  the  joys  of  power,  one  finds, 
after  all,  only  a  constant  struggle,  and,  what  is  the 
worst  bitterness  of  all,  for  a  heart  which  is  in  the  right 
place,  the  tempest  of  hatreds  unchained,  and  friend- 
ships lost  all  along  the  road,  calumnies  inconceivable, 
which   nothing  tires?     And  you  believe   that   power 

1  Jules  Ferry,  Tonkin  et  la  Mere  Patrie. 


THE  JULES  FERRY  MINISTRY.  159 

thus  wrested  possesses  any  virtue  and  value  in  itself  ?  " 
Since  his  death,  since  the  innermost  Jules  Ferry  has 
become  better  known  to  us,  we  divine  that  he  had  a 
delicate  nature,  from  which,  as  he  himself  said,  with 
serene  melancholy,  "the  roses  budded  inwards."  At 
the  present  day,  a  sinister  light  illumines  that  long  way 
of  the  cross  which  he  had  to  traverse.  The  attempt 
at  assassination,  of  which  he  came  near  being  the  vic- 
tim, caused  him  less  pain  than  the  incessant  insults, 
the  caricatures,  the  nameless  mud  which  Paris  flung 
beneath  his  feet.  Then  hatred  grew  weary,  oblivion 
came,  and,  at  last,  the  hour  of  justice  sounded.  By 
calling  him  to  preside  over  them  (1893),  during  the 
last  three  weeks  of  his  life,  the  senators  rendered  pos- 
sible that  long  ovation  which  republican  France  led 
behind  his  coffin ;  she  recognized  him,  at  last,  as  one 
of  the  noblest  of  her  sons,  the  one  who  had  proclaimed 
that  "  democracy  and  the  Republic  are  the  goal  of  all 
modern  progress,  and  ought  to  concentrate  in  them- 
selves everything  that  was  good,  or  great,  or  useful 
in  the  past." 

The  work  of  Jules  Ferry  was  threefold :  he  restored 
the  idea  of  parliamentary  government,  and  made  it 
firm ;  he  turned  the  national  activity  and  the  national 
attention  towards  the  colonies,  and  created  an  "ex- 
ternal France  "  ;  and,  finally,  he  made  instruction  and 
education  the  firm  bases  of  the  Republic.  "  The  gov- 
ernment," he  said,  "  must  be  a  lighthouse,  which  lights 
and  guides,  and  not  a  sort  of  twilight  where  all  opin- 
ions blend."  But  his  autocracy  always  remained  par- 
liamentary and  liberal.  "  I  cannot  endure  the  idea," 
he  exclaimed  at  the  National  Circle,  on  March  9,  1883, 
"that  the  French  democracy  should  not  be  able  to 
tolerate    parliamentary   organization.     What  1     Every 


160  THE  EVOLUTION  OF  FRANCE. 

one  admits  that  the  parliamentary  form  of  government 
is  the  most  noble,  the  most  generous,  the  most  favor- 
able to  liberty.  It  is  the  daily  battle,  the  peaceful 
battle,  which  shields  the  people  from  street  battles;  it 
is  well-studied,  progressive  reform ;  ...  it  is  authority 
constantly  held  in  control ;  it  is  government  founded 
upon  the  widest  publicity.  Universal  suffrage,  democ- 
racy, would  be  incompatible  with  this  ideal.  By  as- 
serting that,  gentlemen,  you  injure  democracy  and 
universal  suffrage." 

Before  following  up  the  vicissitudes  of  the  crisis 
which  the  fall  of  the  Ferry  ministry  opened  up  to  the 
country,  we  will  cast  a  glance  at  the  general  aspects  of 
the  colonial  policy,  of  that  vast  enterprise  whose  utility 
France  seems,  at  last,  to  have  comprehended,  and  to 
the  pursuit  of  which  she  seems  to  be  in  the  way  pas- 
sionately to  attach  herself.  In  order  to  realize  it,  con- 
tinental peace  was  necessary.  Jules  Ferry,  like  all 
clear-sighted  minds,  considered  the  maintenance  of 
peace  as  the  first  requisite  of  the  future.  He  under- 
stood that  a  war,  even  a  victorious  war,  would  have 
acted  as  a  stop-cock  applied  to  that  gigantic  labor  of 
France,  the  manufacture  anew  of  her  implements,  and 
the  restoration  of  her  fortune.  But  he  did  not  com- 
prehend any  state  of  things  between  France  and  Ger- 
many but  peace  or  war.  He  thought,  no  doubt,  with 
Washington,  that  "  the  nation  which  gives  itself  over 
to  continual  sentiments  of  love  or  hatred  towards  an- 
other becomes,  in  a  way,  the  slave  of  its  hatred  or  its 
love,"  and  every  form  of  slavery  was  repugnant  to  his 
nature.  As  for  those  who,  ignorant  of  his  grandeur 
of  soul,  and  of  the  profound  love  which  he  felt  for  his 
country,  reproached  him  with  having  stretched  out  his 
hand,  over  the  graves  of  our  soldiers,  to  their  con- 


THE  JULES  FERRY  MINISTRY.  161 

queror,  he  replied  to  them  by  this  simple  desire,  ex- 
pressed in  his  will :  "I  ask,"  he  said,  "that  I  may  rest 
at  Saint  Di^,  in  that  cemetery  whence  the  blue  line  of 
the  Vosges  is  visible,  and  whence  my  faithful  heart 
will  continue  to  hear  the  moan  of  the  vanquished." 
There,  in  fact,  reposes  the  great  patriot,  the  great  citi- 
zen who  was,  with  Gambetta,  the  true  founder  of  the 
Republic. 


162  THE  EVOLUTION  OF  FRANCE. 


CHAPTER  VII. 

COLONIAL  FRANCE. 

Three  Colonial  Empires.  —  A  National  Tradition.  —  Obstacles  and  Labors. 
—  France  beyond  the  Sea  in  1872,  and  in  1894.  —  West  Africa.  —  Mada- 
gascar. —  French  Asia.  —  Problems  of  Indo-China.  —  Administrative 
Errors.  —  The  Sluggishness  of  French  Commerce.  —  The  Educational 
Question. 

The  French  nation  is  laboring  at  the  erection  of 
its  third  colonial  empire.  The  first  was  created  by 
Francis  I.,  Henri  IV.,  Coligny,  Richelieu,  and  Colbert, 
destroyed  by  Louis  XIV.  and  Louis  XV.  The  second, 
outlined  under  Louis  XVI.,  found  its  development 
hampered  and  its  future  ruined  by  the  Revolution. 
The  third  is,  almost  exclusively,  the  work  of  the  Re- 
public. 

"  External  France  "  is  of  distant  date ;  it  was  born 
of  the  isolated  efforts  of  those  hardy  conquerors  who 
were  driven  beyond  the  frontiers  by  their  spirit  of  ad- 
venture and  of  enterprise,  their  taste  for  danger,  and 
their  love  of  glory.  That  is  a  very  noble  origin. 
Other  peoples  have  early  had  the  instinct  of  com- 
merce, and  the  legitimate  desire  for  wealth ;  ^  coloni- 
zation has  been,  for  our  people,  rather  a  career  for 
audacity  than  a  career  of  interest ;  the  French  have 
always  sought  to  expend  therein  their  virile  force, 
rather  than  to  acquire  fortune ;  and  we  shall  see  that 
this  characteristic  of  their  colonial  activity  has  sur- 

1  See  M.  Leroy-Beaulieu's  remarkable  book,  on  Colonisation  chez  les 
Peuples  Modernes. 


COLONIAL  FRANCE.  163 

vived  the  very  profound  transformation  of  the  national 
character ;  to-day  one  still  finds  more  readily  men  who 
are  ready  to  volunteer  for  perilous  missions  than  for 
lucrative  undertakings. 

The  period  from  1365,  which  extends  from  the  epoch 
at  which  several  establishments  already  existed  in 
Guinea,  until  1628,  the  date  of  the  first  conflict  in  a 
distant  land  with  England,  is  filled  with  extraordinary 
feats  of  arms,  with  individual  deeds  of  prowess,  which 
are  stamped  with  the  impulse  of  primitive  instincts  and 
of  unreasoning  ambitions.  Jean  de  B^thencourt  takes 
possession  of  the  Canary  Islands  (1402)  ;  Jean  Cousin 
attempts  the  discovery  of  the  East  Indies  (1488). 
Paulmier  de  Gonneville,  Denis  de  Honfleur,  Thomas 
Aubert,  Jean  Parmentier,  surnamed  "  the  great  French 
Captain,"  Adalbert  de  la  Ravardi^re,  and  many  others 
whose  names  are  almost  forgotten,  were  also  notable. 
There  are  also  the  avengers  ;  like  the  brave  Ango,  who 
captures  three  hundred  vessels,  and,  ascending  the  Tagus, 
imposes  peace  on  John  III.  of  Portugal,  guilty  of  having 
sunk  French  ships  in  Brazilian  waters  ^1539) ;  or,  again, 
like  that  gentleman  of  Mont-de-Marsan,  of  Gourgues, 
who,  setting  out  from  Bordeaux  with  two  hundred  men, 
on  August  2, 1567,  to  avenge  the  nine  hundred  French- 
men massacred  two  years  earlier  by  the  Spaniards,  in 
Carolina,!  immolates  nearly  four  hundred  of  the  latter  in 
his  turn,  and  returns  home  with  contented  heart.  All 
these  men  were  preparing,  without  themselves  suspect- 
ing the  fact,  the  future  expansion  of  France,  and 
flaunted  their  splendid  recklessness  and  their  joyous 
brutality  across  the  new  world  which  loomed  up  on 
the  horizon. 

1  Ribeau  of  Dieppe,  sent  to  Florida  by  Coligny,  had  baptized  the  laud 
which  he  visited  by  the  name  of  Carolina,  in  honor  of  King  Charles  IX. 


164  THE  EVOLUTION  OF  FRANCE. 

Francis  I.,  when  lie  founded  Havre  (1537),  is  the 
first  to  point  out  that  this  expansion  is  the  "affair  of 
the  King,"  which,  at  that  epoch,  was  equivalent  to  say- 
ing :  a  national  question.  Coligny,  later  on,  never 
wearies  of  forming  expeditions ;  he  sends  Jacques 
Cartier  to  Cape  Breton,  Villegageux  to  Brazil,  Jean 
Ribaut  to  Florida.  Several  houses  are  founded,  several 
societies  are  organized  for  the  development  of  the  riches 
which  are  revealed.  There  is  one  in  Algeria,  about 
1525,  whose  object  is  coral  fishery.  In  1582  the  Nor- 
mans, expelled  from  Guinea  by  the  Portuguese,  unite 
their  efforts  and  establish  themselves  at  Saint  Louis 
de  Senegal,  and,  in  1598,  de  Chastes,  Governor  of 
Dieppe,  appointed  by  Henri  IV.  Lieutenant-General 
of  America,  forms,  with  gentlemen  of  Rouen  and  of  La 
Rochelle,  a  trading  company. 

The  situation  becomes  definitely  outlined :  North 
America  has  attracted  audacious  youth,  as  the  magnet 
attracts  iron  ;  it  is  to  become  the  field  of  European 
cupidity ;  scarcely  has  Champlain  founded  Quebec 
(1608),  and  discovered  the  Great  Lakes  (1614-1615), 
than  his  security  is  menaced.  The  English,  established 
in  Virginia  ever  since  the  time  of  their  first  voyage 
thither,  have  taken  advantage  of  the  regency  of  Marie 
de  Medici  to  ravage  Acadie  ;  in  1628  they  attack 
Canada.  Quebec,  of  which  they  have  taken  possession, 
is  restored  at  the  peace  of  Saint-Germain  (1632),  but 
the  war  kindled  on  the  banks  of  the  Saint  Lawrence 
will  not  cease  for  more  than  a  century  and  a  half. 

In  1661,  when  Montreal  was  founded.  New  France  al- 
ready counts  about  twenty-five  hundred  Europeans  ;  in 
the  following  year,  it  becomes  the  property  of  the  Crown, 
and  the  company  of  the  Hundred  Associates  is  dissolved. 
The  governor  and  the  officers  sent  out  by  the  metropolis 


COLONIAL  FRANCE.  166 

form  the  centre  of  a  society  which  studies  fine  manners, 
and  strives  to  be  polished  ;  and,  during  this  time, 
adventurers,  whose  race  has  not  died  out,  whose  ardor 
does  not  decrease,  plunge  deep  into  the  West,  to  the 
very  foot  of  the  Rocky  Mountains  :  Louis  JoUiet, 
Pere  Marquette,  explore  Arkansas  and  Wisconsin  ;  La 
Salle  descends  the  Mississippi  to  its  mouth,  and  takes 
possession  of  Louisiana  in  the  name  of  Louis  XIV.  The 
death  of  Colbert,  in  1683,  marks  the  apogee  of  our 
colonial  empire.  During  the  last  twenty  years,  to 
Martinique  and  to  Guadeloupe  (conquered  between 
1625  and  1635  by  d'Enambuc  and  his  companions),  we 
have  added  Sainte  Lucie,  Saint  Barthdlemy,  Dominique, 
and  San  Domingo. ^  Madagascar,  under  the  name  of 
risle  Dauphine,  had  become  the  property  of  the  Crown  ; 
Pondichery  and  Chandernagor  had  been  founded,  and 
the  India  Company  had  been  reorganized  on  better 
bases. 2  It  was  not  so  much  the  death  of  Colbert  as  that 
of  the  great  Mongol  Emperor,  Aurung-Zeb,  which 
happened  in  1717,  that  caused  the  decline  of  French 
India.  The  power  of  Aurung-Zeb  held  in  respect  the 
English,  Dutch,  and  Portuguese  traders  ;  when  it  van- 
ished, the  English  company  and  the  French  company 
found  themselves  face  to  face,  and  having  become  landed 
powers,  they  pushed  their  rivalry  even  to  armed  con- 
flict. 

In  America,  numbers  triumphed  ;  we  had  about  fif- 
teen or  twenty  thousand  colonists,  while  the  English 
already  numbered  two  hundred  thousand  ;  they  took 
advantage   of   the   war    of    the  League    of   Augsburg 

1  French  buccaneers  had  established  themselves  in  San  Domingo. 
Colbert  was  wise  enough  to  protect  them. 

2  Henri  IV.  had  founded,  in  1604,  a  trading  company  for  Hindustan. 
The  India  Company  was  created  by  Richelieu ;  in  1642  it  occupied  Reunion 
Island. 


166  THE  EVOLUTION   OF  FRANCE. 

(1690),  then  of  the  war  of  the  Spanish  Succession,  to 
attempt  to  subdue  us ;  the  treaty  of  Ryswick  (1697) 
left  things  in  the  same  state  as  before,  but  that  of 
Utrecht  (1713)  deprived  us  of  Newfoundland,  Arcadie, 
and  the  Hudson  Bay  Territory.  France,  at  least,  found 
compensation  in  Louisiana,  where  colonization  was 
making  strides,  and  in  Maurice  Island,  which,  aban- 
doned by  the  Dutch,i  was  granted  to  the  India  Com- 
pany (1721),  and  beheld,  under  the  skilful  government 
of  La  Bourdonnais,  the  cultivation  of  its  soil  extend 
and  cities  spring  up  on  its  shores.  The  treaty  of 
Utrecht  did  not,  however,  discourage  the  inhabitants  of 
Newfoundland.  Between  1713  and  1744  their  number 
rose  from  twenty-five  thousand  to  fifty  thousand,  and, 
by  the  establishment  of  a  line  of  forts  on  the  Ohio,  they 
maintained  frequent  communication  with  their  fellow- 
countrymen  in  Louisiana,  saving  themselves  up,  in  a 
manner,  for  a  more  happy  future.  During  this  time, 
great  things  were  being  accomplished  in  Hindustan,  but 
it  became  evident  that  the  heedlessness  of  the  King  and 
his  ministers,  and  the  ignorant  indifference  of  public 
opinion,  were  rendering  sterile  all  the  efforts  of  our 
colonists.  In  1739  the  Mahrattas,  under  Ragoglu, 
their  chief,  had  been  forced  to  retreat  before  Dumas, 
Governor  of  Pondich^ry,  who  was  succeeded,  two  years 
later,  by  the  illustrious  Dupleix.  Wljen  the  war  of  the 
Austrian  Succession  broke  out  in  Europe,  its  results 
were  felt  afar.  But  Dupleix,  reinforced  by  La  Bour- 
donnais, seized  Madras,  won  the  victory  of  San  Thome 
(1747)  with  two  hundred  Frenchman  over  a  hundred 
thousand  Hindus,  and,  finally,  gloriously  defended 
Pondich^ry  against  the  English  (1748).     In  this  year 

1  The  Dutch  had  named  it  after  Maurice  of  Nassau.    Under  French 
rule  it  became  I'lsle  de  France. 


I 


COLONIAL  FRANCE.  167 

the  peace  of  Aix-la-Chapelle  was  signed,  and  Louis 
XV.,  who  was  making  war  "like  a  king  and  not  like  a 
merchant,"  restored  Madras  ! 

In  1750  the  war  over  the  succession  to  the  Deccan 
and  the  Carnatic  was  resumed.  Dupleix,  La  Touche, 
and  Bussy  crushed  the  Mahratta  cavalry  in  four  succes- 
sive combats.  Dupleix  was  powerful  ;  with  five  prov- 
inces, he  had  formed  upon  the  shores  of  Orissa  a 
regular  kingdom,  with  Mazulipatam  for  its  capital ; 
the  British  flag  no  longer  floated  over  Madras.  Then 
intrigue  effected  at  Versailles  what  cannons  had  not 
been  able  to  accomplish  in  Asia.  Louis  XV.  recalled 
Dupleix  (1754),  and  Godchen,  his  successor,  signed  a 
treaty  with  the  English  by  which  the  two  companies 
renounced  "their  possessions,"  and  forbade  each  other 
to  intermeddle,  thenceforth,  in  the  affairs  of  India.  In 
the  following  year,  the  Seven  Years'  War  broke  out. 
From  that  moment  forth  the  French  arms  were  every- 
where beaten  back.  Montcalm  wins  only  a  single 
victory  at  Carillon,  but  the  British  fleet  continues  to 
ascend  ;  the  hero  is  routed  and  killed  on  the  Plains  of 
Abraham.  Quebec  capitulates  and,  in  spite  of  the  fine 
defence  of  M.  de  Levis,  the  forts  are  reduced,  one  after 
the  other.  During  this  time,  Clive  has  taken  Chander- 
nagor  (1757),  Bussy  has  been  made  prisoner  at  Vanda- 
vachi,  and  the  unfortunate  Lally-Tollendal,  Godchen' s 
successor,  capitulates  in  Pondichery  (1761). 

The  peace  of  Paris  is  signed  in  1763 ;  French  India 
is  done  for ;  ^  the  few  factories  which  our  conquerors 

1  Some  French  soldiers  of  fortune  made  another  attempt,  with  the  aid 
of  the  native  princes,  to  stop  the  progress  of  the  English :  some  of  them 
mere  adventurers,  who  sought  only  to  enrich  themselves,  like  General 
Perron  and  La  Martiniere ;  others,  true  patriots,  like  that  Raymond, 
formerly  an  officer  under  Lally,  who  organized  an  army  corps,  in  European 
style,  for  the  Nizam,  in  1795 ;  he  had  eighteen  thousand  men  trained  after 


168  THE  EVOLUTION  OF  FRANCE. 

restore  to  us  will  have  for  us,  henceforth,  only  a  hisr 
torical  value ;  in  the  rest  of  the  world  we  lose  Can- 
ada, half  of  Louisiana,  Saint  Vincent,  Dominique,  and 
Sdn^gal.   .  .  . 

The  first  French  colonial  empire  is  at  an  end ;  only 
a  few  scattered  fragments  of  it  remain.  This  great 
effort  has  suffered  shipwreck,  and  yet  the  colonial 
sap  is  not  exhausted ;  it  can  be  felt  close  at  hand, 
and  the  government  of  the  metropolis,  this  time,  will 
watch  its  budding  with  friendly  interest.  Louis  XVI. 
is  on  the  throne,  a  much  misunderstood  monarch, 
whose  capacities  were  paralyzed  and  whose  defects  were 
thrown  into  relief,  by  fate.  He  it  was  who,  as  early 
as  1768,  sent  afar  Bougainville ;  Bougainville,  who 
reconnoitres  Pomotu,  Tahiti,  New  Guinea,  and  who 
will  have  for  his  successors  La  Pdrouse  (1787)  and 
d'Entrecasteaux  (1791). ^  During  the  war  in  America, 
the  Bailiff  de  Suffren  wins  the  victory  of  Madras,  re- 
takes Pondich6ry,2  ^nd  in  1783  the  treaty  of  Versailles 
restores  to  us  Senegal  and  Tabago.  It  is  the  epoch 
when  Benoiwski,  by  making  his  famous  attempts  at 
colonizing  Madagascar,  prepares  the  way  for  our  action 
in  the  future,  and  when  Bishop  Pigneau  de  Behaine 
negotiates,  between  Louis  XVI.  and  the  Emperor  Gia- 
Long,  that  singular  treaty  which  —  though  it  was  not 
put  in  operation  —  has  served  as  the  point  of  departure 

the  French  manner,  and  bearing  the  colors  of  the  Republic.  Raymond 
perished  in  1798,  having  been  assassinated  by  his  enemies  at  the  Nizam's 
court;  this  ended  the  French  influence  at  Hyderabad;  he  was  interred 
there  and  honored  as  a  demigod. 

1  La  Perouse  discovered  the  Friendly  Islands,  the  Norfolk  Islands, 
touched  at  Botany  Bay,  and  died  at  Vanikoro.  D'Entrecasteaux  passed 
through  the  same  archipelagoes  in  search  of  him,  and  touched  at  Van 
Diemen's  Land. 

2  Pondichery,  restored  at  the  peace  of  Paris,  had  again  escaped  from 
our  grasp. 


COLONIAL  FRANCE.  169 

for  our  establishment  in  Indo-China.  The  legal  ex- 
istence of  the  colonies  begins  in  1792 ;  the  Legislative 
Assembly  grants  to  them  the  right  of  representation 
in  Parliament.  Thus  the  Isle  de  France  and  Reunion 
take  a  hearty  share  in  the  great  national  uprising ; 
they  organize  a  vigorous  resistance  to  the  English, 
while  Victor  Hugues,  despatched  to  the  Antilles  by 
the  Convention,  succeeds  in  driving  them  out  of  Gua- 
deloupe and  Sainte  Lucie.  Did  Napoleon  cherish  any 
ulterior  views  with  regard  to  the  colonies?  In  any 
case,  he  would  have  lacked  both  leisure  and  the  forces 
to  apply  to  them ;  for  the  second  time  the  policy  of 
expansion  perished,  crushed  by  the  continental  policy ; 
the  treaty  of  Paris  of  1814,  like  the  treaty  of  Paris 
of  1763,  left  to  external  France  nothing  but  ruins. 
If  circumstances  should  permit  the  resumption,  for  the 
third  time,  of  the  distant  work,  would  the  nation  and  its 
rulers  be  able  to  profit  by  the  lesson;  to  choose  clearly 
between  the  one  party  and  the  other  ;  to  will,  with  firm- 
ness, that  European  peace  which  is  indispensable  to 
every  enterprise  of  colonial  expansion?  Such  was  the 
problem  to  which  the  past  had  set  the  limits.  It  has 
not  been  waste  of  time  to  cast  a  glance  over  that 
past,  and  to  recall,  in  this  place,  its  principal  vicissi- 
tudes. Our  colonies  constitute  one  of  the  most  power- 
ful bonds  which  unite  the  France  of  yesterday  to  the 
France  of  to-day.  In  attempting  to  render  them  great 
and  prosperous,  the  Republic  has  remained  faithful  to 
national  traditions. 

When  the  first  wounds  of  1870  had  healed  over,  and 
we  were  approaching  the  end  of  that  convalescence 
whose  brevity  surprised  and  disquieted  our  enemies, 
the  statesmen  in  whom  the  country  had  confidence 
began  to  ask  themselves  to  what  quarter  it  was  proper 


I 


170  THE  EVOLUTION   OF  FRANCE. 

that  they  should  direct  its  reviving  life.  Many  reasons 
presented  themselves  for  choosing  colonial  expansion. 
Jules  Ferry,  more  than  any  other  man,  felt  the  neces- 
sity of  this.  He  took  care  to  explain  his  meaning  to 
the  Chamber  one  day  when  an  attack  against  the 
whole  colonial  policy  was  being  made  through  his 
person.^  "In  Europe,  such  as  it  has  become,"  said 
he;  "in  the  competition  of  so  many  rivals  which  are 
springing  up  around  us,  some  by  military  and  maritime 
improvements,  others  by  the  prodigious  development  of 
their  populations;  — in  a  universe  thus  constituted,  the 
policy  of  reserve  and  abstention  is  the  highway  to 
decadence.  .  .  .  To  shine  without  acting,  without 
mixing  in  the  affairs  of  the  world,  by  holding  aloof 
from  all  combinations,  by  regarding  every  expansion  in 
Africa  or  in  the  East  as  a  trap,  as  an  adventure, — 
to  live  thus  is  to  abdicate  !  "  All  the  States  of  Europe, 
in  fact,  were  launching  out,  one  after  the  other,  in  the 
path  of  foreign  conquests  and  of  aggrandizement  of 
their  commercial  horizons.  To  abstain  from  this  was 
not  only  to  wrong  the  country,  but  to  give  occasion 
to  the  enemies  of  the  Republic  to  render  it  responsible 
for  the  stagnation  which  would  result  therefrom. ^  On 
the  one  hand,  the  obstacles  were  numerous  and  diffi- 
cult to  overcome.     And,  in  the  first  place,  shall  we  ever 

1  It  was  on  July  1, 1885,  a  few  months  after  the  fall  of  the  Jules  Ferry- 
Cabinet;  it  was  a  question  of  the  appropriations  for  Madagascar,  the  de- 
mand for  which  had  not  been  withdrawn  by  M.  Brisson,  the  new  President 
of  the  Council. 

2  "  I  understand  well  the  monarchical  parties,"  continued  Jules  Ferry, 
in  the  speech  quoted  above;  "when  they  wax  indignant  at  seeing  the 
French  Republic  undertake  to  do  anything  but  exercise  the  policy  of 
reserve,  of  pot-luck,  —  pardon  me  the  expression,  —  they  do  not  hide  from 
us  the  fact  that  they  think  a  policy  capable  of  grand  designs  and  of  grand 
thoughts  is  an  appanage  of  monarchy;  a  democratic  government,  in  their 
eyes,  is  a  government  which  humbles  everything,  politics  as  well  as  the 
rest." 


COLONIAL  FRANCE.  171 

succeed  in  interesting  the  countiy,  in  durable  fashion, 
in  an  enterprise  which  it  will  not  have  the  means  of 
controlling  day  by  day,  and  for  the  results  of  which 
we  must  wait  long?  Had  not  indifference  been  the 
cause  of  past  lack  of  success?  In  short,  a  certain 
unpopularity  has  always  attached  to  colonizations. 
With  Voltaire,  people  had  perceived  in  Canada  only 
"roods  of  snow."  Louisiana  had  excited  the  fancy 
of  the  Parisians,  and  that  poor  Dupleix  had  beheld 
himself  turned  into  ridicule,  to  such  a  degree,  says  one 
of  his  historians,^  "  that  moral  tales  and  comic  operas 
were  founded  on  him  and  on  his  projects."  More 
recently,  what  firm  will  and  what  coherence  of  purpose 
had  been  required  to  render  popular  the  army  of  Africa, 
whose  conquests  so  often  came  near  being  abrogated 
by  "  the  hesitations,  the  weaknesses,  the  limited  views, 
the  ignorant,  narrow,  or  declamatory  policy  of  the  duly 
qualified  Chambers.  "^  These  examples  were  far  from 
encouraging,  and,  without  foreseeing  that  party  spirit 
would  make  of  Tonkin  the  "lists  of  our  discords,"^ 
a  stubborn  fight  was  to  be  expected,  whose  issue  would, 
perhaps,  remain  for  a  long  time  uncertain. 

The  first  effect  of  the  apathy  and  indifference  of 
public  opinion  with  regard  to  the  colonies  is  the  diffi- 
culty of  finding  good  functionaries  to  administer,  and 
good  colonists  to  develop  their  value.  The  English 
send  out  to  a  distance  picked  men,  whom  they  clothe 
with  real  authority,  and  whose  duties  are  well  remu- 
nerated as  well  as  respected.  The  French  colonial  func- 
tionary, on  the  contrary,  considers  that  he  is  exiled, 
his  career  is  held  in  small  esteem ;  he  remains  in  the 
background.  As  for  the  colonist,  he  must  have  an  ex- 
tremely rare  dose  of  courage  to  undertake   his   stern 

1  M.  de  Saiut-Priest.     2  juies  Ferry,  Le  Tonkin  et  la  Mere  Patrie.     3  Ibid. 


172  THE  EVOLUTION  OF  FRANCE. 

task,  and,  in  order  that  he  may  succeed  therein,  par- 
ticularly favorable  chances.  Many  persons  assert  that 
the  Frenchman  is,  by  nature,  a  bad  colonist.  Nothing 
is  less  proved.  1  But  the  education  which  he  receives 
gives  him  the  appearance  of  being  so,  in  any  case.  It 
breaks  his  initiative,  represses  his  energy,  trains  him 
to  fear  and  to  obedience  ;  in  a  word,  shapes  him  to  the 
exact  reverse  of  what  is  fitting  in  the  future  colonist. 

Lastly,  before  launching  out  in  colonial  enterprises, 
it  was  of  importance  to  find  out  what  was  to  be  the 
economical  policy  of  the  Republic.  If  the  mother- 
country  is  at  liberty  to  choose  between  protection  and 
free  trade,  is  she  at  liberty  to  apply  the  system  of  her 
choice  to  her  dependencies  beyond  the  sea  ?  Without 
free  trade,  the  greater  part  of  the  colonies  cannot  pros- 
per, and  many  cannot  even  exist.  "  The  manufacturers 
of  the  mother-country  never  succeed  in  supplying  lib- 
erally the  market  from  which  they  have  driven  out 
their  foreign  competitors,  and  by  no  longer  selling 
anything  but  the  national  products,  the  merchants  in 
the  colonies  vegetate  and  languish."  ^  If  the  repub- 
lican Chambers  were  induced  to  establish  a  protective 
tariff,  —  and  from  certain  signs,  one  might  predict  that 
possibility,  without  being  a  pessimist,  —  what  would 
become  of  the  colonies? 

All  these  question  marks,  all  these  uncertainties,  all 
these  reasons  for  fear  in  the  future,  did  not  paral}- ze  the 
activity  of  the  "colonials."     They  had  faith  in  their 

1  Tocqueville  wrote,  in  Democratic  en  Am^riqite,  Vol.  II.,  these  lines, 
which  remain  true  to  this  day:  "I  myself  have  seen,  in  Canada,  the 
Englishman,  master  of  the  commerce  and  the  manufactures,  spreading 
out  on  all  sides  and  crowding  the  Frenchman  into  too  narrow  limits." 
But  the  Canadians  are  placed  in  conditions  of  real  inferiority  by  the  moral 
and  intellectual  repression  from  which  they  suffer. 

2  J.  Chailley-Bert,  La  Colonisation  de  I'Indo-Chine. 


COLONIAL  FRANCE.  173 

work,  and,  seconded  by  bold  travellers,  who  acted  as 
scouts,  they  have  created  a  French  Africa  and  Asia 
upon  which  we  may  be  permitted  to  cast  a  glance  of 
pride,  although  what  has  already  been  accomplished  is 
but  little  in  comparison  with  that  which  remains  to  be 
done. 

In  1872  we  possessed,  in  Africa,  Algeria,  where  the 
military  colonization  dreamed  of  by  Marshal  Bugeaud 
had  utterly  failed,  where  the  lack  of  care  and  the  in- 
capacity of  the  administration  rivalled  the  unfortunate 
institution  of  the  Arab  offices  in  extinguishing  all  in- 
itiative, and  clipping  the  wings  of  all  private  enter- 
prise ;  Algeria,  which  weighed  upon  the  finances  of  the 
mother-country  instead  of  relieving  them,^  and  which 
had  to  its  credit  only  the  fact  that  it  had  trained  good 
officers  and  maintained  the  vigor  of  the  troops.  Our 
claims  upon  Tunis,  its  neighbor,  had  been  discreetly 
formulated  by  the  monarchy  of  July ;  the  Second  Re- 
public and  the  Empire  had  confined  themselves  to  not 
renouncing  them.  We  still  had  S^n^gal,  whence  life 
seemed  to  have  disappeared,  where,  between  1817  and 
1854,  thirty-one  governors  had  followed  one  after  the 
other,  bringing  no  unity  of  plan,  no  attempt  at  general 
improvements,  so  that,  in  reply  to  the  demands  and 
the  complaints  of  the  Bordeaux  merchants,  it  ended  in 
the  despatching  thither  of  General  Faidherbe,  who  re- 
established safety,  founded  the  post  of  Mddine,  and 
constructed  fortified  works  on  the  river.  Further 
down,  towards  the  South,  French  factories  had  been 

1  According  to  the  report  presented  to  the  Senate  by  M.  Pauliat,  for 
the  appropriations  of  1891,  Algeria,  between  1830  and  1880,  cost  a  little 
more  than  five  milliards,  and  brought  in  1,260,018,754  francs;  in  1891, 
added  the  report,  it  cost  more  than  eighty-six  millions;  now,  with  forty- 
six  millions  a  year,  England  administers  her  colonies,  that  is  to  say,  one- 
sixth  of  the  globe,  and  three  hundred  and  sixty  million  inhabitants. 


174  THE  EVOLUTION  OF  FRANCE. 

established  in  1843  at  Grand  Bassam  and  at  Assinie, 
on  the  Ivory  Coast.  In  1870  these  posts  were  evacu- 
ated, and  it  was  a  merchant  of  La  Rochelle,  M.  Verdier, 
who,  by  taking  the  title  of  Resident,  succeeded  in  pre- 
serving Grand  Bassam  to  France,  in  spite  of  the  efforts 
of  the  Governor  of  the  English  Gold  Coast.  Still 
further  away  extends  the  Slave  Coast,  the  maritime 
front  of  the  Dahomey  country ;  there,  again,  individual 
efforts  had  brought  about  happy  results,  such  as  the 
foundation  of  Grand  Popo  (1857),  the  establishment 
of  the  protectorate  at  Porto  Novo  (1863),  and,  finally, 
the  cession  of  Kotonou  by  the  King  of  Dahomey. 
Then  the  protectorate,  left  without  organization  or  re- 
sources, was  abandoned ;  the  English  even  tried  to 
annex  the  territory  of  Porto  Novo,  but  without  success. 
Finally,  a  French  Congo  was  founded  in  1839  by  Com- 
mander Bouet-Willaumez,  who  signed  with  Chief  Denis 
a  preliminary  treaty,  which  was  made  definitive,  in 
1844 ;  in  1849  the  establishment  of  Libreville  had  been 
created;  later  on  (1862),  our  authority  was  extended 
over  the  Ogoou^,  and  over  all  the  territory  com- 
prised between  that  river  and  the  Gaboon;  du  Chaillu, 
Walker,  de  Compiegne,  and  Marche  had  explored  the 
country.  They  had  had  no  encouragement  from 
France ;  no  one  knew  what  they  were  going  to  do 
"off  there."     No  one  paid  much  attention  to  them. 

Very  different  is  the  aspect  of  these  same  regions 
twenty  years  later.  Behind  S^ndgal  a  vast  empire  is 
in  process  of  formation,  which  will  abut,  on  one  side, 
upon  Algeria,  and  on  the  other  upon  the  French  Congo. 
This  gigantic  work  had  its  birth  in  1879,  through  the 
creation  of  the  advance  post  of  Bafoulab^  ;  between 
1881  and  1887,  under  Colonel  Borgnis-Debordes  and 
Commander  Combes,  the  work  of  penetrating  inward 


r 


COLONIAL  FRANCE.  175 

was  pursued  with  vigor  by  the  foundation  of  the  ports 
of  Badumb^,  Kita,  Bammako,  Koundou,  Niagassola ; 
in  1888  Kanani  was  reached,  the  port  of  Timbuctoo ;  ^ 
then  Lieutenant-Colonel  Galli^ni  and  Commander  Arch- 
inard  extended  our  influence  as  far  as  the  sources  of 
the  Niger,  and  placed  under  our  protectorate  the  States 
of  Ahmadou  and  Samory.  Dahomey  is  in  our  hands. 
The  brilliant  expedition  of  General  Dodds  (1892) 
ended  in  the  capture  of  Abomey,  and  the  overthrow  of 
a  dynasty  whose  very  name  inspired  terror  in  the  bend 
of  the  Niger.  Finally,  the  French  Congo  has  been 
greatly  developed,  thanks  to  the  efforts  of  M.  de  Brazza 
and  his  colleagues ;  we  have  acquired  there,  by  a  series 
of  treaties,  a  great  number  of  territories  beyond  the 
original  limits.  But  then  arose  the  disputes  with  the 
European  powers  who  had  become  our  neighbors.  Our 
new  empire  encloses  Portuguese  Guinea,  the  English 
factories  of  Sierra  Leone,  the  American  Republic  of 
Liberia,^  the  British  Gold  Coast,  the  German  territory 
of  the  Cameroons,  and  is  conterminous,  for  a  long  dis- 
tance, with  the  independent  Congo  State ;  not  to 
mention  the  isolated  establishments  which  fortuitous 
circumstances  or  the  whims  of  travellers  have  sprinkled 
along  the  shores  of  western  Africa,  and  over  which  float 
the  various  flags  of  the  European  nations. 

The  compact  of  August  5,  1890,  consecrated,  after 
a  manner,  the  existence  of  the  French- African  West. 

1  Colonel  Bonnier  entered  Timbuctoo  in  1894. 

2  The  Republic  of  Liberia  was  created  with  an  aim  which  was  both 
philanthropic  and  interested  :  it  was  believed  that  it  might  become  a  great 
centre  for  the  material  and  intellectual  emancipation  of  the  blacks  of  the 
Soudan,  while,  at  the  same  time,  it  would  attract  the  blacks  of  the  South- 
ern States  of  the  Union  in  America;  by  "returning  them  to  their  native 
land  "  the  negro  question,  which  weighs  upon  the  future  of  the  United  States, 
would  be  solved  in  a  peaceful  manner.  But  the  negroes  have  no  desire  to 
leave  America,  and  that  plan  has  failed. 


176  THE  EVOLUTION   OF  FRANCE. 

England  and  Germany,  by  disposing  of  the  sultanate 
of  Zanzibar,  had  infringed  anterior  rights,  whose  exist- 
ence had  been  almost  forgotten,  even  by  France  her- 
self;  they  were  remembered  in  the  nick  of  time,  and 
compensation  was  demanded.  They  consisted  of  the 
"  Hinterland  "  (the  interior)  of  S^ndgal  and  of  Guinea, 
with  access  to  Lake  Tchad,  which  thus  became  the 
grand  central  square  of  civilization  in  the  bosom  of  the 
Black  Continent.  There  is,  no  doubt,  some  degree  of 
childishness  in  this  partition  of  immense  territories,  in- 
completely explored,  badly  defined,  and  which  solemn 
diplomats  assign  to  one  or  another  by  drawing  straight 
lines  on  a  map  that  lies  outspread  before  them.  The 
very  next  day  after  he  had  been  indulging  in  this  ex- 
ercise, Lord  Salisbury  made  fun  in  public,  in  a  very 
pleasant  manner,  of  his  own  way  of  acting.  Neverthe- 
less, it  is  not  so  tame  an  operation  as  it  might  appear. 
These  are  annexations  "  which  a  persevering  diplomacy 
cultivates  afterward  as  germs  of  claims  and  rights  in 
the  future."^  Moreover,  were  the  " conquistadores " 
(conquerors)  much  more  ridiculous  when,  in  the  name 
of  their  sovereign,  they  took  possession  of  a  land  or  of 
an  ocean  whose  limits  they  did  not  know? 

Skilfully  conducted  negotiations  have  caused  these 
difficulties  of  delimitation  to  end,  so  far  as  we  are 
concerned,  for  the  most  part,  in  success. ^     But  strive 

1  Speech  made  in  the  Senate,  April  5, 1895,  by  M.  Hanoteaux,  Minister 
of  Foreign  Affairs. 

2  Among  the  most  recent  conventions,  we  may  cite  tlie  Franco-German, 
of  February  4,  1894,  which  fixed  the  frontier  between  the  Cameroons  and 
the  French  Congo ;  and  the  Convention  of  August  14, 1894,  between  France 
and  the  Congo  Free  State,  which  came  about  in  consequence  of  the  claims 
which  the  Anglo-Congo  Convention  of  May  22,  of  the  same  year,  had 
called  for  on  the  part  of  France.  Therein  it  was  stipulated  that  England 
"  took  on  lease  "  certain  Congo  territories,  among  others  a  strip  twenty- 
five  kilometres  in  width,  which  ran  from  Lake  Tanganyika  to  Lake  Albert- 
Edward.    The  importance  of  such  a  stipulation  can  readily  be  imagined. 


COLONIAL  FRANCE.  177 

as  she  may  to  keep  the  peace  between  the  agents  who 
represent  her  in  the  Dark  Continent,  Europe  will  be 
only  partially  successful  in  her  efforts  thereto ;  either 
it  is  the  Roman  Catholic  and  Protestant  missionaries 
who,  forgetting  their  mission  of  Christian  fraternity, 
arm  the  people  subject  to  their  influence  against  each 
other;  or  it  is  the  French,  English,  German,  Portu- 
guese holders  of  grants  who  seek  to  harm  each  other, 
not  so  much  through  commercial  rivalry  as  through 
race  jealousy.  The  result  is,  that  even  between  men 
of  the  same  race  arise  deplorable  conflicts,  and  that 
petty  jealousies  are  displayed  where  unity  of  action 
alone  could  insure  any  progress. 

In  all  its  enterprises  of  conquest  and  of  exploration, 
the  government  has  been  well  backed  up  by  private 
initiative.  The  French  committee  on  Africa,  and 
other  similar  societies,  have  rendered  it  the  most 
praiseworthy  and  the  most  disinterested  assistance ; 
the  Chambers  of  Commerce,  the  Geographical  Socie- 
ties, great  daily  journals  and  even  mere  private  citi- 
zens, have  defrayed  the  expense  of  expeditions  whose 
results  have  been  considerable.  But  all  these  sacrifices, 
all  this  devotion,  have  been  inspired  by  the  love  of 
country,  or  of  science,  or  by  the  ambition  to  perform 
some  generous  act,  and  to  acquire  a  fame  of  good 
quality.  Now,  it  is  agricultural,  industrial,  and  com- 
mercial enterprises  which,  more  than  all  else,  enrich 
colonies.  But  if  the  French  are  ready  to  give  their 
blood  for  the  cause  of  civilization,  or  for  the  aggran- 
dizement of  the  national  domain,  they  appear  less  dis- 
posed to  risk  their  money  to  procure  for  their  new 
possessions  that  beneficent  "irrigation,"  which  alone 
will  insure  their  development. 

After  French  Africa  and  Asia,  Madagascar  consti- 


178  THE  EVOLUTION   OF  FRANCE. 

tutes  the  third  important  portion  of  our  present  empire 
beyond  the  sea.  As  has  already  been  said,  our  rela- 
tions with  that  great  African  island  do  not  date  from 
3"esterday.  The  Normans  established  themselves  there, 
and,  nearly  three  centuries  ago,  the  India  Company 
had  some  unfortunate  experiences  there  ;  ^  Colbert  took 
an  interest  in  it,  but  did  not  succeed  in  interesting 
public  opinion  therein. ^  French  agents  prepared  there, 
by  their  innumerable  mistakes,  the  massacre  of  their 
fellow-countrymen  (1672),  and  Louis  XIV.  in  vain 
decreed  the  annexation  of  Madagascar  (now  become 
the  Dauphin's  Island),  by  a  series  of  orders  which  bear 
the  date  of  1686,  1719,  1720,  and  1721 ;  the  Malagasy 
would  not  permit  themselves  to  be  allured.  The  ad- 
venturers had  better  success.  The  history  will  be  re- 
called of  that  corporal  Labigorne  who  married  Queen 
B^ty  and  reorganized  the  commercial  relations  be- 
tween Madagascar  and  the  Isle  de  France  (1750- 
1767).  After  him  came  M.  de  Modave  and  B^niowski, 
whom  d'Aiguillon  protected,  and  whom  the  Malagasy 
wished  to  proclaim  king.  The  Convention  installed 
a  Resident  at  Tamatave.^     The  Restoration  took  pos- 

1  The  representatives  of  the  French  company,  Prouis  and  ^tienne  de 
Flacourt,  did  not  manage  to  make  the  inhabitants  accept  them ;  the  latter, 
in  particular,  rendered  himself  odious  to  them  by  his  severity.  After  it 
was  reorganized,  by  Marshal  de  la  Meilleraye,  the  company  made  a  fresh, 
but  fruitless,  attempt  in  Madagascar.  In  1671  the  company  restored  the 
island  to  the  King  of  France. 

2  Colbert  attempted,  by  an  original  innovation,  to  create  a  current  of 
public  opinion  in  favor  of  Madagascar.  He  disseminated  pamphlets  and 
issued  appetizing  advertisements.  He  even  got  up  a  subscription,  and 
put  down  the  King  and  the  princes  at  the  head  of  the  list. 

3  It  is  to  be  noted  that,  in  spite  of  the  difficulties  which  the  Convention 
encountered  in  the  interior  and  on  the  frontiers,  it  found  time  to  turn  its 
attention  to  the  colonies,  and  never  dreamed  of  abandoning  them.  The 
"colonial  sentiment "  did  not  exist  among  the  members  of  the  Conven- 
tion, who  were  anxious,  above  all,  to  remain  faithful  to  their  principles, 
to  suppress  slavery,  and  to  emancipate  humanity  wherever  they  could. 


r 


COLONIAL   FRANCE.  179 

session  of  Tintingue  (1829) ;  Louis  Philippe  evacuated 
it.  No  government  seemed  to  care  to  draw  closer  the 
bonds  which  united  Madagascar  to  France.  But  none 
dared  finally  to  sever  them.  A  favorable  opportunity 
presented  itself  to  Napoleon  III.  Three  French  trad- 
ers established  in  the  island,  MM.  de  Lastelle,  Laborde, 
and  Lambert,  had  acquired  a  great  position  with  Queen 
Ranavalo  and  her  son.  The  establishment  of  the  pro- 
tectorate was  then  easy,  but  the  Emperor,  wholly  en- 
grossed with  his  continental  policy,  wished  to  take 
England  in  as  half-partner  in  the  business  which  was 
proposed  to  him.  For  a  long  time  the  English  had 
been  seeking  an  opportunity  to  lay  hands  on  Madagas- 
car. In  1816  Governor  Farquhar  had  informed  the 
Governor  of  Bourbon  that  he  regarded  Madagascar 
as  a  dependency  of  the  Isle  de  France.  His  act  was 
disclaimed,  so  intenable  was  the  claim,  but  his  manoeu- 
vres were  secretly  encouraged.  Lord  Clarendon,  to 
whom  the  imperial  government  thus  threw  open  the 
door,  despatched  to  the  island  the  Methodist  Ellis,  who 
organized  British  missions,  where,  under  the  pretext  of 
a  religious  propaganda,  anti-French  action  was  exer- 
cised. The  missionary  Pickersgill  (1877-1881)  fol- 
lowed him.  The  hour  was  come  to  act  or  to  evacuate. 
In  1883  Admiral  Pierre  seized  Majunga  and  Tamatave; 
the  next  year.  Admiral  Miot  blockaded  the  coasts, 
while  Admiral  Galiber,  and  afterward  M.  Patrimonio, 
entered  into  laborious  negotiations  with  the  Hovas. 
The   English  nursed  in  the  latter   the   delusion   that 

Nevertheless,  it  was  a  sort  of  merit  on  their  part,  that  they  paid  atten- 
tion, at  that  very  troubled  epoch,  to  the  fate  of  distant  lands  which  they 
might  have  emancipated  without  feeling  themselves  hound  to  aid  in  their 
defence.  This,  assuredly,  constitutes  the  principal  claim  to  glory  on  the 
part  of  the  Convention,  —  this  care  to  lose  none  of  the  national  territory, 
and  to  preserve  everywhere  its  integrity. 


180  THE  EVOLUTION  OF  FRANCE. 

Europe  was  favorable  to  them ;  i  consequently,  they 
themselves  broke  off  the  parley  as  soon  as  they  descried 
the  possibility  of  a  ministerial  crisis  in  France,  or  of 
a  refusal  by  Parliament  of  the  appropriations  asked 
for  by  the  government.  At  last  a  treaty  was  signed, 
which  ceded  to  us  Diego-Suarez  Bay,  and  established 
our  protectorate.  England  recognized  the  clauses  in 
1891 ;  but  in  order  to  vanquish  the  last  lingering  re- 
sistance of  the  Hovas,  to  deprive  them  of  the  last 
illusions  and  establish  the  French  domination  beyond 
the  possibility  of  dispute  in  Madagascar,  an  expedition 
was  necessary;  it  is  now  being  carried  out.^  Tliere 
is  no  doubt  that  the  great  African  island  is  capable  of 
becoming,  in  the  hands  of  a  power  which  shall  under- 
stand how  to  develop  its  wealth,  a  magnificent  source 
of  prosperity.  We  shall  see  what  are  the  conditions 
indispensable  for  the  planting  and  success  there  of 
French  colonization. 

The  origins  of  French  Asia  are  equally  distant.  The 
first  Roman  Catholic  missions  to  Tonkin  date  from 
1625.  In  1684  the  India  Company  caused  one  of  its 
agents,  Le  Chappelier,  to  explore  it ;  others  of  its  rep- 
resentatives followed  him  in  1735,  1748,  and  1749. 
At  last,  in  1787,  a  treaty  was  signed  at  Versailles 
between  the  French  plenipotentiaries  and  the  son  of 

1  In  1882  the  Hova  government  had  sent  to  Paris  its  Minister  of  For- 
eign Affairs.  This  functionary,  deceived  as  to  the  attitude  of  the  other 
powers,  and  believing  that  he  could  execute  a  sensational,  theatrical  sur- 
prise, abruptly  broke  off  negotiations,  and  set  off  one  evening  for  Berlin  ; 
he  was  surprised  and  chagrined  to  find  himself  turned  out  of  doors  there. 

2  Nothing  affords  better  proof  of  the  change  of  opinion  which  has  taken 
place  in  the  matter  of  colonial  expeditions  than  the  unanimity  with  which 
certain  appropriations  have  been  granted,  and  the  enthusiasm  which  ac- 
companied the  embarkation  of  the  Madagascar  expeditionary  corps.  The 
triumphal  return  of  General  Dodds  from  the  Dahomey  expedition  had 
already  indicated  a  change  in  the  disposition  of  public  opinion. 


COLONIAL  FRANCE.  181 

the  deposed  Emperor,  Gia-Long,  aided  by  the  Bishop 
of  Adran,  Pigneau  de  B^haine,  the  instigator  of  this 
treaty.  King  Louis  XVI.  bound  himself  to  restore 
to  his  throne  the  Emperor  of  Annam,  who,  in  return, 
ceded  the  archipelago  of  Poulo-Condore,  the  bay  and 
city  of  Tourane.  As  the  Revolution  prevented  Louis 
XVI.  from  keeping  his  engagements,  the  bishop  took 
charge  of  them  in  place  of  his  sovereign.  He  chartered 
vessels,  engaged  officers  and  engineers,  reorganized  the 
army  and  the  fleet  of  Gia-Long.  Not  only  did  the 
latter  recover  his  inheritance,  but  he  extended  his  rule 
over  the  whole  of  Tonkin,  where  the  French  engineers 
erected  the  very  fortifications  which  our  soldiers  have 
since  been  compelled  to  capture  in  the  face  of  a  thou- 
sand perils.  The  death  of  the  prelate-patriot,  who 
had  remained  the  confidential  adviser  of  Gia-Long, 
marked  the  decline  of  the  French  influence  (1798); 
half  a  century  elapsed,  and  the  memory  of  Pigneau  de 
Bdhaine  was  pretty  thoroughly  effaced  when,  in  1858, 
in  consequence  of  the  massacre  of  French  and  Span- 
ish missionaries,  and  the  defeat  of  a  peaceful  mission 
entrusted  to  M.  de  Montigny,  Admiral  Rigault  de 
Genouilly,  at  the  head  of  a  Franco-Spanish  expedition, 
took  possession  of  Tourane,  then  of  Saigon  (1859). 
In  1852,  after  several  victories  of  our  arms,  which  were, 
moreover,  dearly  bought,  the  celebrated  Tu-Duc  con- 
sented to  sign  the  treaty  of  Saigon.  ^  An  embassy 
despatched  to  Cambodia  obtained  from  Norodom  the 
establishment  of  the  French  protectorate.  And  finally. 
Captain  Doudart  de  Lagr^e,  having  explored  the  course 
of  the   Mekong   and   traversed   Laos,    recognized   the 

^  By  this  treaty,  the  three  provinces  of  Mytho,  Bien-Hoa,  and  Saigon, 
and  the  archipelago  of  Poulo-Condore  were  ceded  to  us ;  the  three  other 
provinces  of  Lower  Cochin  China  were  occupied  in  1867. 


182  THE  EVOLUTION  OF  FRANCE. 

Song-Koi  or  Red  River  as  the  natural  way  by  which 
China  could  be  penetrated.^ 

After  the  war  of  1870,  "the  Tonkin  question"  im- 
mediately presented  itself  ;  it  could  not  be  eluded,  un- 
less we  closed  to  our  possessions  of  Indo-China  every 
outlet  towards  the  interior,  and  unless  we  abandoned 
to  others  the  precious  advantages  which  were  within 
our  reach.  A  trader,  M.  Dupuis,  installed  himself  at 
Hanoi,  where  he  was  molested  by  the  Annamites ; 
during  that  same  year,  Admiral  Dupr^  entrusted  a 
mission  to  naval  Lieutenant  Gamier.  Gamier  had 
with  him  two  gunboats  and  one  hundred  and  seventy- 
five  men  ;  the  hostile  attitude  of  the  mandarins  led  to 
his  capturing  Hanoi,  then  to  occupying  the  whole  delta. 
The  Annamites  then  called  to  their  assistance  the  131ack 
Flags,  the  remnants  of  the  Chinese  bands  of  the  Tai- 
Pings,  and  in  an  attack  upon  the  citadel  of  Hanoi, 
Garnier  was  killed. 

Admiral  Dupr6  was  one  of  those  enthusiasts  whom 
Tonkin  so  completely  captivates.  He  wrote  to  the 
Minister  of  Marine,  on  July  28,  1873  :  "  I  am  ready, 
if  any  doubt  lingers  in  your  mind  and  in  that  of  the 
government,  to  assume  the  entire  responsibility  of  the 
consequences  of  the  expedition  which  I  am  planning,  to 
expose  myself  to  the  danger  of  being  disavowed,  to  a 
recall,  to  the  loss  of  the  rank  to  which  I  believe  I  have 
some  right.  I  ask  neither  approbation  nor  reinforce- 
ments ;  I  ask  you  to  allow  me  to  act,  with  the  liberty 
of  disavowing  me  if  the  results  which  I  obtain  are  not 
those  which  I  have  presented  to  you."  But  the  Cabinet 
which  was  presided  over  by  the  Due  de  Broglie  was  not 
very  colonial  in  sentiment  ;  they  decided  to  evacuate 
Hanoi  and  the  delta,  and  to  accept  the  compact,  enti- 

1  Captain  de  Lagr^  died  at  Yunnam,  in  1868. 


COLONIAL  FRANCE.  183 

tied  the  compact  of  1874,  which  established  an  incom- 
plete protectorate,  and  nourished  the  germs  of  conflict 
in  the  future. ^  The  results  of  this  compact  have  defi- 
nitely condemned  the  policy  which  dictated  it.  An 
energetic  intervention  would  have  warded  off  many 
evils,  and  spared  many  later  losses  of  men  and  money. 
From  1875  to  1883  was  an  uninterrupted  period  of 
journeys^  and  explorations,  but  the  horizon  was  darken- 
ing ;  the  court  of  Hu^  became  reconciled  to  the  Tsong- 
Li-Yamen,  and  sent  to  Pekin  embassies  and  gifts.  In 
1882  Marquis  Tseng  announced  in  Paris  that  China 
would  not  regard  the  Convention  of  1874  as  valid  ;  he 
received  from  Gambetta  a  clear  and  categorical  reply, 
which  M.  de  Freycinet  soon  afterwards  repeated. 
"France,"  said  the  minister,  "has  no  explanation  to 
make  to  China."  Unfortunately,  the  party  of  decision 
did  not  prevail  with  sufficient  completeness  ;  uncertain- 
ties, hesitations,  could  be  felt.  M.  le  Myre  de  Vilers, 
after  having  exhausted  all  means  of  conciliation,  beheld 
the  situation  growing  aggravated,  and  sent  to  Tonkin 
Commander  Rividre,  who  seized  Hanoi.  During  this 
time,  our  minister  at  Pekin,  M.  Bouree,  had  brought 
about  the  acceptance  there  of  a  treaty  project,  which 
created  a  neutral  zone  between  China  and  Annam,  and 

1  The  President  of  the  Republic  recognized  the  sovereignty  of  the 
Emperor  of  Aunam  and  his  entire  independence  of  any  foreign  power,  and 
bound  himseK  to  aid  and  uphold  him,  in  case  of  need.  The  Emperor  bound 
himself,  in  return,  to  conform  his  external  policy  to  that  of  France,  and  never 
to  sign  any  political  treaties  without  having  informed  the  French  govern- 
ment thereof  beforehand.  Divers  clauses  dealing  with  details,  some  of 
which  were  advantageous  to  commerce,  completed  this  treaty,  but  did  not 
correct  the  vague  and  confused  character  of  the  principal  clauses. 

2  It  is  to  be  noted  that  no  distant  conquest  was  ever  better  prepared 
for  from  the  point  of  view  of  knowledge  of  the  country ;  but  the  narra- 
tives of  travellers  left  public  opinion,  in  general,  indifferent  in  France, 
while  in  England  our  progress  was  watched  with  jealous  and  uneasy 
attention. 


184  THE  EVOLUTION  OF  FRANCE. 

contained,  on  the  part  of  France,  a  stipulation  that  she 
should  respect  the  territory  of  Annam.  M.  Bouree  was 
disclaimed  and  recalled  ;  but  Commander  Riviere,  who 
had  reconquered  the  delta,  should  have  been  all  the 
better  supported.  The  Black  Flags  were  formidable 
enemies  ;  in  France,  they  were  not  yet  taken  seriously. 
On  April  19,  1883,  Commander  Riviere  was  killed ; 
thirty  dead  and  fifty-five  wounded  fell  around  him. 

On  this  occasion  repression  was  prompt.  Admiral 
Courbet  was  given  the  command  of  a  naval  division, 
and  General  Bouet  that  of  the  troops  to  be  landed. 
The  bombardment  and  capture  of  the  forts  of  Thuan- 
An,  situated  at  the  mouth  of  the  river  Hu^,  sufficed  to 
intimidate  the  government  of  Annam,^  which  sued  for 
peace.  The  treaty  of  August  25,  1883,  sanctioned  the 
protectorate  of  France  over  Annam  and  Tonkin  ;  ^  but 
we  then  found  ourselves  face  to  face  with  China,  which 
had  gradually  substituted  herself  for  Annam,  and  now 
sent  reinforcements  to  Tonkin  without  any  pretence  of 
secrecy.  Admiral  Courbet  took  sole  command  ;  we 
were  conquerors  at  Hai-Dzuong  and  at  Sontay.  In  the 
beginning  of  1884,  sixteen  thousand  men  arrived  from 
France  under  the  command  of  General  Millot ;  Bac- 
Ninh  was  taken  on  March  12,  Hong-Hoa  on  April  13, 
Tuyen-Quan  on  June  1 ;  one  might  have  thought  that 
the  treaty  of  Tien-Tsin,  signed  by  M.  Fournier  on  May 
11,  would  put  an  end  to  hostilities.  Nothing  of  the  sort. 
China  is  not  a  centralized  country  ;  provincial  autonomy 
there  is  great ;    so  war  began  again  at  one  point  as 

1  Tu-Duc  had  just  died,  leaving  the  throne  to  Hiep-Hoa,  who,  shortly 
afterwards,  was  i)oisoued  and  succeeded  by  Kien-Phuoc. 

2  The  treaty  sanctioned,  in  addition  to  France's  right  to  occupy  the 
forts  of  Thuan-An,  the  annexation  of  the  province  of  Binh-Thuan  to  our 
possessions  of  Cochin  China,  and  the  delivery  into  our  hands  of  the  custom- 
houses of  Annam. 


COLONIAL  FRANCE.  185 

soon  as  peace  was  established  at  another  point ;  the 
imperial  government  profited  by  this  situation,  and 
sought  to  prolong  it.  Negotiations  were  in  progress 
simultaneously  at  Pekin  and  at  Hue,  and  even  at 
Pnom-Penh,  where  Norodom  experienced  the  efforts  at 
revolt  which  M.  Thomson's  energy  speedily  quelled.^ 
The  surprise  of  Bac-Le  (June  23)  proved  that  all  was 
not  over  ;  satisfaction  was  demanded  of  China,  which 
granted  nothing.  Then  it  was  that  Admiral  Courbet 
ascended  the  river  Min,  destroyed  the  Chinese  fleet  of 
twenty-two  vessels  and  two  thousand  men  (August 
23),  then  the  arsenal  of  Fou-Tcheou  (August  24),^  and 
executed  that  marvellous  descent  of  the  river  in  which, 
capturing  in  reverse  order  the  fortified  posts,  the  bat- 
teries, and  the  forts  of  the  Mingan  pass,  he  successively 
dismantled  all  these  works.  China  lost,  in  addition  to 
her  fleet  and  her  sailors,  more  than  25,000,000  francs  ; 
only  ten  Frenchmen  were  killed.  Kelung,  in  the  island 
of  Formosa,  was  in  our  hands,  and  in  Tonkin,  General 
Bridre  de  ITsle  had  taken  possession  of  the  important 
positions  Kep  and  Chu.  The  promulgation  by  Eng- 
land of  the  Foreign  Enlistment  Act  did  not  impede  our 
progress.^  In  the  beginning  of  1885,  Admiral  Courbet 
occupied  the  Pescadores  islands,  and  blocked  Pe-Tche- 
Li,  while  General  Briere  de  ITsle  forced  the  Chinese  to 
raise  the  siege  of  Tuyen-Quan.     When  one  studies  in 

1  Norodom  protracted  the  execution  of  the  promised  reforms,  and  refused 
to  permit  the  establishment  of  a  customs  union  with  the  rest  of  Indo- 
China.  M.  Thomson  forced  him  to  concede  it;  slavery  was  definitely 
abolished,  and  the  system  of  individual  property  was  finally  set  up. 

2  See  Maurice  Loir,  L'Escadre  de  I' Admiral  Courbet.    1  vol. 

3  This  act  prohibited  the  belligerents  from  supplying  themselves  with 
provisions,  munitions  of  war,  and  coal,  in  the  ports  of  the  British  Empire ; 
under  color  of  neutrality,  this  measure  could  only  embarrass  the  French ; 
the  government  avoided  it,  by  creating  coaling-stations  at  Obock,  Mahe, 
and  Pondiche'ry. 


186  THE  EVOLUTION   OF  FRANCE. 

its  entirety  that  fine  campaign,  fulfilled  with  strategic 
skill,  with  valor  and  victories,  he  understands  how  the 
surprise  of  Langson,  whose  importance  was  swelled  out 
of  all  proportion  by  party  hatreds  in  France,  was  power- 
less to  restore  the  confidence  of  the  Chinese  ;  the  latter 
had  been  vanquished  on  all  sides.  The  incident  did 
not  retard  peace ;  the  preliminaries  were  signed  at 
Paris  on  April  4,  as  we  have  seen  ;  the  final  treaty, 
negotiated  by  M.  Patenotre,  was  signed  at  Tien-Tsin 
on  June  9.  Annam  and  Tonkin,  definitively  with- 
drawn from  Chinese  influence,  passed  under  the  un- 
contested sovereignty  of  the  French  Republic. 

We  have  already  sufficiently  pointed  out,  in  connec- 
tion with  Tunis,  the  errors  of  speech,  the  exaggerations, 
the  calumnies,  the  suspicions  to  which  party  spirit  had 
lent  itself  in  the  discussions  of  colonial  affairs;  it  is 
useless  to  revert  to  the  subject,  except  to  call  attention 
to  the  fact  that  the  success  won  in  Tunis  did  not  re- 
dound to  the  profit  of  Tonkin ;  the  "  Tonkinese "  were 
the  target  for  attacks  of  unprecedented  violence,  for 
the  most  lying  accusations.^  Then  time  did  its  work, 
and,  in  the  presence  of  the  unanimity  of  the  most 
unforeseen  and  least  suspicious  testimony,  men  were 
forced  to  yield  to  the  evidence,  and  recognize  in  Tonkin 
"one  of  the  richest  parts  of  Indo-China."^  Its  mines, 
its  delta  so  fitted  for  the  culture  of  rice,  its  mountain- 
ous regions,  where  immense  herds  of  neat-cattle  and 

1  It  was  asserted  in  the  press,  in  books,  and  even  in  the  tribune  of  the 
Chamber,  that  the  expedition  had  cost  a  milliard  and  a  half,  and  36,000 
men.  Now,  on  December  1,  1889,  the  expenditures  amounted  to  exactly 
334,802,379  francs,  and  the  loss  of  men,  from  1883  to  1889,  reached  a  total 
of  9067.     (See  Jules  Ferry,  Le  Tonkin  et  la  Mere  Patrie.) 

2J.-L.  de  Lanessan,  U Expansion  Coloniale  de  la  France.  1  vol. 
Paris,  1886.    See  also  the  articles  published  by  Prince  Henri  d'Orleans. 


COLONIAL  FRANCE.  187 

sheep  could  be  raised,  its  salubrious  climate,  —  all  con- 
tribute to  make  of  it  a  land  essentially  favorable  to 
colonization.  So  it  was  decided,  as  Jules  Ferry  hap- 
pily expressed  it,  to  receive  Tonkin  into  the  great 
French  family,  not  without  "sulking"  at  it  a  little, 
and  men  consented  to  cast  a  glance  upon  the  map  of 
the  Far  East,  in  order  to  see  its  limits  and  divine  its 
needs.  They  are  very  plainly  written  there  ;  the  geog- 
raphy of  those  regions  is,  in  fact,  eminently  sugges- 
tive, and  makes  clear,  at  first  sight,  the  European 
rivalry  which  is  in  question.  Indo-China  is  not  com- 
posed only  of  Tonkin,  of  Annam,  and  Cochin  China, 
that  is  to  say,  of  that  portion  of  territory,  narrow  and 
not  very  fertile,  which  the  natives  have  compared,  with 
all  truth,  to  a  stick  bearing  two  bags  of  rice.  Indo- 
China  comprises,  in  addition,  besides  Cambodia,  which 
is  under  our  domination,  the  kingdom  of  Siam  and 
Burmah.  These  different  countries  are  traversed  by 
numerous  waterways,  and  chiefly  by  four  great  rivers, 
— the  Irrawaddy,  the  Menam,  the  Mekong  or  Cambodia, 
and  the  Song-Koi  or  Red  River.  A  very  extensive 
mountain  system  extends  along  their  northern  borders, 
and  a  question  depends  thereupon  which  transcends  all 
others,  —  that  of  the  entrance  to  China. 

China  has  always  been  the  objective  aim  of  all  the 
European  powers :  merchants,  engineers,  manufact- 
urers, have  rivalled  each  other  in  their  zeal  to  get  its 
gates  opened  to  them.  For  a  long  time,  the  union  of 
Europe  against  China  was  complete ;  the  Western 
powers  acted  in  concert,  and  drew  from  their  good 
understanding  an  immense  force  before  which  Chinese 
immobility  was,  finally,  forced  to  yield. 

After  1870  things  changed;  Germany  and  Italy 
entered  upon  the  stage;   thence   arose  diversities  of 


188  THE  EVOLUTION  OF  FRANCE. 

interests,  which  had  their  echo  in  the  Far  East ;  and 
as  the  mandarins  and  the  privileged  classes  greatly- 
feared  the  invasion  of  European  civilization  (the  tele- 
graph and  railways  could  not  but  diminish  their  power 
by  strengthening  that  of  the  Emperor),  China  was 
more  hermetically  closed  than  ever  against  the  influ- 
ence of  the  West.  By  a  sort  of  instinct,  the  evicted 
powers  sought  to  establish  themselves  on  the  border 
provinces.  The  English  cast  their  eyes  upon  Burmah. 
Besides  the  fact  that,  with  its  mountains  rich  in  mines, 
its  fertile  plains,  and  its  forests,  Burmah  might,  in 
their  hands,  become  a  magnificent  colony,  it  facilitated 
for  them  the  access  to  the  Yunnam.^  We  had  a  com- 
mercial treaty  with  King  Thebaw, — a  convention  signed 
on  January  15,  1885,  which  confirmed  and  completed 
the  previous  convention.  The  displeasure  in  England 
was  very  keen,  and  the  conquest  of  Burmah  was  im- 
mediately decided  upon.  An  ultimatum  was  addressed 
to  Mandalay,  and  an  English  army  invaded  the  Bur- 
mese territory.'^  In  France,  we  were  in  a  period  when 
the  advocates  of  colonies  confined  their  ambition  to 
Tonkin ;  there  could  be  no  question  of  intervening  in 
Burmah.  But  Burmah  once  captured,  the  English 
did  not  find  themselves  much  more  advanced.     They 

1  The  Irrawaddy  is  navigable  from  Rangoon  at  its  mouth,  to  Bhamo, 
situated  on  the  southern  frontier  of  Yunnam,  500  kilometres  north  of 
Rangoon. 

2  It  is  impossible  not  to  observe  the  analogy  between  the  Burmese 
expedition  and  that  of  Tonkin ;  the  lack  of  enthusiasm  on  the  part  of 
public  opinion,  the  importance  of  the  struggle,  the  duration  of  hostilities, 
the  tardiness  of  pacification,  interrupted  by  a  series  of  checks,  the  num- 
ber of  troops  which  took  part  in  the  two  expeditions,  —  all  concur  to  render 
this  analogy  striking,  even  to  the  Dacoits,  who  played  in  Burmah  the  part 
of  the  Black  Flags  in  Tonkin.  On  one  point  only  was  there  a  divergence: 
in  England  public  opinion  remained  calm,  coldly  discussed  the  opportune- 
ness of  the  measures  taken,  and  in  no  way  impeded  the  liberty  of  action 
of  the  government  and  its  representatives. 


COLONIAL  FBANCE.  189 

wished  to  reach  the  Chinese  town  of  Ssu-Mao,  situated 
on  the  frontier  of  Yunnam,  and  to  the  west  of  Tonkin. 
This  could  be  effected  only  by  constructing  a  very 
costly  line  of  railway,  which  would  infringe,  morally 
at  least,  the  territory  of  Siam.^  France  was,  in  a  man- 
ner, forced  to  intervene  at  Bangkok,  and  to  encounter 
England  there.  Every  one  knows  under  what  condi- 
tions this  intervention  took  place, — how  Admiral  Ru- 
mann,  crossing  the  bar  of  the  Menam,  went  up  and 
imposed  upon  the  King  of  Siam  an  ultimatum  which 
the  latter  was  obliged  to  accept,  and  how  negotiations 
were  opened  between  France  and  England  with  the 
object  of  preventing  the  dreadful  conflicts  to  which 
contact,  excess  of  zeal,  and  too  ardent  ambition  might 
give  rise. 

It  is  not  our  duty  to  pronounce  upon  the  amount  of 
foundation  of  certain  claims  which  were  raised  on  both 
sides,  or  to  blame  or  praise  the  policy  which  has  been 
followed  on  still  more  recent  occasions.  The  future 
will  reveal  whether  it  was  wise  to  make  French  Asia 
participate,  in  a  manner,  in  political  acts  of  an  exclu- 
sively European  character ;  that  is  a  state  of  things 
which  may  become  either  advantageous  or  dangerous, 
according  to  the  current  of  events,  which  is  still  un- 
fathomable. Our  African  possessions  adjoin  regions 
over  which  float  foreign  flags ;  but  French  Asia  is  far 
more  exposed ;  in  the  neighborhood  of  China,  Japan, 
Australia,  and  English  India,  it  would  suffer  severely 
from  the  consequences  of  a  European  war ;  the  system 
of  alliances  which  seems  fated  to  be  formed  in  the  Far 
East  is,  for  her,  a  permanent  menace. 

1  The  kingdom  of  Siam  is  not  homogeneous  like  Annam  and  Cam- 
bodia; it  comprises  a  considerable  number  of  principalities  which  are 
more  or  less  independent  of  the  court  of  Bangkok. 


190  THE  EVOLUTION  OF  FRANCE. 

If  it  is  impossible  to  misunderstand  the  grandeur  of 
the  colonial  work  accomplished  by  the  Republic,  it  is 
difficult  not  to  see,  at  the  same  time,  its  defective  sides, 
and  not  to  be  struck  with  the  fact  that  such  an  effort 
ought,  under  normal  conditions,  to  have  produced  an 
entirely  different  set  of  results.  The  principal  inno- 
vation which  has  been  introduced  into  our  colonial 
•^  methods  is  the  application  of  the  protectorate.  It  has 
been  tried  in  Tunis.  There  it  has  not  only,  according 
to  the  profound  saying  of  Cardinal  Lavigerie,  "  saved 
us  the  expense  of  a  religious  war,"  it  has,  chief  of  all, 
forced  us  to  renounce  "  that  spirit  of  system,  that  taste 
for  hurried  reforms,  for  improvised  settlements,  that 
assimilating  and  revolutionary  mania,"  which  are  worse 
enemies  to  the  colonies  than  war  itself  and  the  hostil- 
ity of  conquered  races.  "It  is  because  we  have  not 
understood  how  to  take  into  account  either  the  force 
of  the  past,  or  the  resistance  of  social  classes,"  Jules 
Ferry  wrote ;  ^  "  it  is  because  we  have  believed  in  the 
universal  virtue  and  almost  magic  property  of  our  laws, 
of  our  institutions,  of  our  administrative  processes,  that 
we  have  adopted  so  many  false  measures  in  Algeria. 
The  protectorate  is  modest  enough ;  it  does  not  build 
upon  a  flat  surface.  The  mother-country,  released, 
thanks  to  it,  of  the  responsibilities  of  direct  govern- 
ment, allows  it  to  go  its  own  way,  take  its  own  time. 
As  no  revolution  is  demanded  of  it,  it  has  no  tempta- 
tion to  raise  one.  It  is  in  the  very  surroundings,  the 
guardianship  which  is  entrusted  to  it,  that  it  is  obliged 
to  find  its  means  of  governing."  Assuredly,  we  may 
conclude  that  if  "the  protectorate  only  has  well-de- 
fined and  coherent  views,  and   the   system   does   not 

^  Preface  written  by  Jules  Ferry  for  M.  Narcisse  Faucon's  book  on  La 
Tunisie. 


CARDINAL    LAVIGERIE,    ARCHBISHOP    OF    CARTHAGE    AND    OF    ALGIERS. 


Of  THl 


[uitivbrsitt; 


COLONIAL  FRANCE.  191 

change  as  often  as  those  who  are  charged  with  apply- 
ing it,"  this  form  of  rule  is  destined  to  become  "the 
favorite  type  of  our  colonial  acquisitions."  But  it  is 
hardly  necessary  to  call  attention  to  the  fact  that  the 
rule  of  the  protectorate  ought  to  differ  very  widely, 
according  as  it  is  applied  to  the  populations  of  West 
Africa,  who  possess  so  rudimentary  a  notion  of  govern- 
ment and  administration,  or  to  the  peoples  of  Indo- 
China,  among  whom  the  respect  for  traditions,  and 
attachment  to  ancient  institutions,  is  so  profoundly 
rooted.  An  empire  as  extensive  and  as  varied  as  ours 
cannot  be  governed  from  Paris  by  telegraph;  the  at- 
tempt to  do  so  was  childish.  The  administration  of 
the  mother-country  has  often  exhibited  an  ignorance 
which  was  equalled  only  by  its  good-will.  Instead  of 
considering  French  Asia  as  a  whole,  it  has  long  held  to 
the  idea  of  "  separate  protectorates,"  which  General  de 
Courcy  tried,  in  vain,  to  resist.  The  result  of  this  was 
a  complete  absence  of  coherence  in  ideas  :  each  Resi- 
dent or  Governor- General  acted  according  to  his  own 
pleasure,  allowing  clauses  of  the  treaty  of  1884  to  fall 
into  desuetude,  or  attempting  to  apply  them,  in  accord- 
ance with  circumstances  or  with  his  own  preconceived 
ideas.  Between  1883  and  1891,  there  were  twenty 
Residents  or  Governor-Generals,  seven  superior  Resi- 
dents in  Annam,  and  eight  in  Tonkin. ^  They  were 
often  chosen  lightly,  but  it  was  wrong,  once  they 
were  chosen,  to  recall  them  too  quickly  and  too  easily. 
What  respect,  in  a  people  which  cherishes  such  an  idea 
of  authority  as  does  the  Indo-Chinese  race,  can  a  man 
inspire  who,  in  the  lofty  function  with  which  he  is 
charged,  remains  exposed  to  all  the  fluctuations  of  poli- 
tics, and  who  is  suddenly  deprived  of  his  prestige  and 

1  J.-L.  de  Lanessan,  La  Colonisation  Frangaise  en  Indo-Chine. 


192  THE  EVOLUTION  OF  FRANCE. 

of  his  power  by  a  telegram,  which  may  be  justified  in 
Paris,  but  is  incomprehensible  in  Hanoi  ?  Add  to  this 
the  rivalry  between  civilians  and  soldiers,  between  the 
militia  and  the  regular  army,  and  also  that  detestable 
prejudice  which  has  consisted  in  depriving  ourselves 
of  the  aid  of  the  mandarins.  "  To  propose  to  the  Anna- 
mites,  either  in  Tonkin  or  in  Annam,  to  make  them 
happy  by  suppressing  the  mandarins,  is  to  run  counter  to 
all  their  ideas,  to  all  the  principles  introduced  into  their 
minds  by  their  education."  ^  However,  "in  practice,  it 
may  be  stated,  that  the  majority  of  functionaries,  re- 
cruited by  us  outside  the  circle  of  educated  Annamites, 
are  less  deserving  than  the  others,  are  less  honest,  less 
conscientious,  in  the  accomplishment  of  their  duties."  ^ 
The  protectorate  exercised  in  Annam  has  long  "con- 
sisted in  a  sort  of  disdainful  juxtaposition  of  the  pro- 
tecting government  and  the  protected  government." 
The  results  have  been  such  as  might  have  been  fore- 
seen :  "  permanent  discontent,  misery  on  the  side  of  the 
protected  party,  a  financial  deficit  on  the  side  of  the 
protector,  absence  of  useful  works,  discomfort  of  com- 
merce, weariness  on  the  part  of  the  mother-country."^ 

Not  content  with  keeping  its  functionaries  under  its 
close  dependence,  the  administration  of  the  colonies 
undertakes  to  give  them  the  most  detailed  orders,  and 
to  foresee,  apparently  for  the  sake  of  sparing  them 
the  trouble,  the  slighifcest  contingencies.  There  is  in 
existence  a  circular,  dated  1893,  addressed  to  the  gov- 
ernors of  the  colonies,  which  orders  them  to  buy  in 
France  everything  which  they  require,  with  an  accu- 
rate list  of  all  the  towns  where  the  purchases  are  to 
be  made  :    bricks  at  Bordeaux  and  at  Marseilles,  salt 

1  J.-L.  de  Lanessan,  La  Colonisation  Fran<;aise  en  Indo-Chine. 

2  Ibid.  3  jbid. 


I 


COLONIAL  FRANCE.  193 

pork  at  Havre,  straw  and  hay  elsewhere.  Thus  "  Indo- 
China,  whose  whole  soil  is  made  of  brick-clay,  and 
which  produces  enormous  quantities  of  rice,  must  buy 
its  stores  of  bricks  and  rice  in  France  !  "  ^  Not  only 
does  it  never  occur  to  any  one  that  it  would  be  of  use 
if  those  who  are  connected  with  the  central  adminis- 
tration would  visit  the  colonies,  but  those  who  have 
visited  them  are,  generally,  regarded  with  distrust,  as 
though  they  had,  as  a  matter  of  course,  brought  back 
thence  with  them  subversive  ideas,  dangerously  auda- 
cious projects,  erroneous  views,  which  those  persons  who 
have  never  quitted  Paris  escape.  A  sort  of  essentially 
town-bred  lounger  spirit  reigns  in  the  government  of- 
fices, as  well  as  in  one  whole  section  of  Parliament, 
"  which  consists  in  judging  African  and  Asiatic  affairs 
exactly  from  the  same  judicial  or  administrative  point 
of  view  as  if  it  were  a  question  of  a  commune  in  metro- 
politan France."  The  concession  to  a  colonization 
company  of  certain  rights  over  a  vast  extent  of  uncul- 
tivated territory  causes  spasms  of  indignation,  as  if 
any  one  were  speaking  of  "alienating  such  provinces 
as  Beauce,  Normandy,  or  Languedoc."^  And  this  con- 
cession, once  obtained,  does  not  even  ensure  security 
to  the  grantees  ;  it  may  happen  that  it  is  withdrawn 
from  them,  under  some  more  or  less  frivolous  pretext. 

But  the  administration  is  not  alone  responsible  for 
private  listlessness,  and  if  it  does  much  to  hamper  the 
colonist  and  little  to  encourage  him,  the  latter,  it  must 
be  confessed,  does  not  find  within  himself,  in  general, 
those  reserve  stores  -  of  force  and  energy  which  he 
needs.     Neither  does  he  find  in  his  fellow-countrymen 

1  J.-L.  de  Lauessan,  La  Colonisation  Fran(;aise  en  Indo-Chine. 

2  Paul  Leroy-Beaulieu,  Les  Compagnies  de  Colonisation,  Journal  des 
D^bats  (March  7,  1895). 


194  THE  EVOLUTION   OF  FRANCE. 

the  help  which  might  make  up  for  his  own  deficiencies ; 
this  last  leads  us  to  say  a  few  words  on  French  commerce, 
and  its  relations  with  the  different  parts  of  the  world. 

The  value  of  our  external  exchanges  has  varied, 
during  the  last  few  years,  between  seven  and  eight 
milliards.^  The  commercial  movement  is  most  intense 
between  England  and  France  :  1,393,000,000  francs  in 
1894.  Belgium  (850,000,000  francs),  Germany  (635,- 
000,000  francs),  the  United  States  (513,000,000  francs), 
come  next ;  then  Algeria  (407,000,000  francs),  Russia 
(305,500,000  francs),  Spain  (285,000,000  francs),  Eng- 
lish India  (225,000,000  francs),  Italy  (219,000,000 
francs),  the  Argentine  Republic  (218,000,000  francs), 
Switzerland  (196,000,000  francs). ^  China  comes  after 
Turkey,  after  Brazil,  after  Austria,  with  an  amount 
hardly  over  100,000,000  francs.  As  for  Indo-China,  it 
holds  a  mediocre  rank,  with  the  other  countries  of  the 
Far  East.  We  have  no  more  dealings  with  Japan  than 
we  have  with  Uruguay  and  Colombia  put  together 
(62,000,000  francs),  less  with  Australia  (58,000,000 
francs)  than  with  Hayti  (63,000,000  francs),  less  with 
the  Dutch  Indies  (about  23,000,000  francs)  than  with 
Saint  Pierre  and  Miquelon  (33,000,000  francs).  These 
figures  are  conclusive ;  they  prove  that,  on  the  one  hand, 
French  commerce  does  not  bear  competition  well,  and 
that,  on  the  other  hand,  it  is  not  clever  at  opening 
new  outlets  for  itself,  or  at  taking  advantage  of  those 
which   are   formed   outside   of    its    immediate    range. 

1  In  1894  the  total  did  not  exceed  6,928,500,000  francs,  though  it  had 
reached  8,190,000,000  francs  in  1890,  and  8,838,000,000  francs  in  1894. 

2  In  1889  the  commercial  relations  with  Spain  were  expressed  by  a 
movement  of  exchanges  amounting  to  550,000,000  francs ;  with  Switzerland, 
332,000,000  francs ;  with  Greece,  55,000,000  francs.  It  is  impossible  not  to 
take  notice  of  these  unfortunate  effects  of  reductions  in  the  customs  duties 
brought  about  by  the  return  to  a  protective  tariff. 


I 


COLONIAL  FRANCE.  195 

Neither  do  French  ship-builders  seem  to  perceive  the 
augmentation  of  maritime  traffic.  Two  German  lines 
and  seven  English  lines,  with  two  hundred  and  twenty- 
six  steamers,  representing  530,232  tons,  plough  the 
seas  of  China  and  Japan,  where  France  is  represented 
only  by  one  subsidized  company ;  not  a  single  service 
of  freight  steamers  exists  between  our  principal  ports 
and  the  Far  East. 

In  the  course  of  his  journey  round  the  world,  M. 
Ernest  Michel  had  an  interesting  conversation  with  a 
French  engineer,  M.  Bonjean,  at  the  cotton  factory  of 
Petropolitana,  which  he  has  summed  up  in  these  terms.^ 
"French  machines,"  said  M.  Bonjean  to  me,  "are 
dearer,  but  their  products  are  better,  and,  in  the  long 
run,  they  effect  a  small  economy ;  but  it  is  difficult  to 
deal  with  French  houses,  because  they  are  slow  or 
tricky,  and,  in  any  case,  they  lack  practical  sense. 
You  see  these  patterns :  they  represent  the  machines 
mounted  and  taken  apart,  with  the  pieces  all  numbered. 
If  I  require  an  extra  piece,  all  I  have  to  do  is  to  write 
to  Manchester  and  mention  the  number,  and  the  piece 
comgs  to  me  by  the  first  steamer;  but  if  a  French 
house  is  in  question,  nothing  of  the  sort  happens.  I 
am  obliged  to  make  a  drawing  of  the  piece,  to  give  its 
dimensions,  and  frequently  they  will  need  fresh  expla- 
nations which  entail  the  loss  of  months,  and  at  last  the 
piece  arrives,  perhaps  incomplete,  or  badly  adaptable. 
I  have  had  a  hundred  occasions  to  place  important 
orders  in  France,  either  for  railways  or  for  manufact- 
ures ;  I  have  failed ;  when  I  telegraphed,  they  took  a 
month  to  answer  me,  because  such  or  such  an  inspector 
was  on  a  journey,  and  while  I  was  waiting,  the  business 
was  ruined.     When  I  inquired  prices  or  estimates,  they 

1  A  travers  V Hemisphere  Sud,  by  Ernest  Michel.    1  vol.    Paris,  1887. 


196  THE  EVOLUTION  OF  FRANCE. 

answered  that  they  could  not  furnish  them  at  once,  and 
they  sent  them  six  months  later.  On  the  other  hand, 
if  I  go  to  the  North  American  or  to  the  Englishman,  he 
shows  me  models,  and  I  make  my  choice.  If  I  want 
another,  he  makes  it  for  me  without  delay ;  he  gives 
me  estimates.  Intelligent  and  serious  men  are  not 
lacking  in  France  ;  it  is  certain  that  if  they  only  knew 
what  is  going  on  in  the  world,  they  would  organize 
their  business  better,  they  would  get  rid  of  a  little 
of  the  functionary  idea  and  routine,  and  would  place 
themselves  in  a  position  to  contend  advantageously, 
at  the  different  points  of  the  globe,  with  the  manu- 
factures of  their  neighbors.  Up  to  the  present  time, 
the  Frenchman  remains  at  home,  and  reduces  the  world 
to  Europe." 

This  whole  passage  was  worth  quoting;  it  consti- 
tutes a  criticism,  unhappily  but  too  well  founded,  on 
French  industry,  which  preserves,  no  doubt,  on  the 
European  markets  its  great  position,  but  does  not  ex- 
ert sufficieHi  effort  to  secure  for  itself  the  new  out- 
lets that  foreign  countries  and  colonial  France  have 
placed  within  its  reach.  French  manufactures  ^  and 
commerce  have  remained  timid,  slow  of  movement, 
uneasy  and  routine  in  character.  While  waiting  for 
the  reforms  already  accomplished  to  bear  their  fruits, 
and  until  other  and  more  extensive  reforms  be  recog- 
nized as  necessary,  could  we  not,  without  fear,  allow 
free  play  to  foreign  initiative  and  capital?  The  impor- 
tant-thing is  not  to  permit  a  state  of  stagnation  to 
establish  itself  in  a  colony,  and,  above  all,  in  a  young 
colony  which  might  be  prosperous.  It  has  been  said  : 
In  the  eyes  of  a  protected  people,  the  protecting  nation 
cannot  legalize  its  intervention  otherwise  than  by  en- 
riching  and   developing   the   country.      There   is,    no 


I 


COLONIAL  FRANCE.  197 

doubt,  some  danger  in  abandoning  to  foreign  hands 
great  territorial  expanses,  or  even  the  superintendence 
of  the  principal  industries,^  of  the  most  important  com- 
mercial houses.  Nevertheless,  those  are  dangers  which 
can  be  warded  off,  inconveniences  which  one  can  suc- 
ceed in  neutralizing.  Again  the  important  point  is, 
that  life  —  intense  life,  the  life  of  action,  of  enterprise, 
of  novelty,  of  audacity  —  shall  circulate  in  overflowing 
streams  throughout  the  colony.  In  France,  all  the 
"  colonials "  are  agreed  to  recognize  the  fact  that 
such  is  the  goal,  not  yet  attained,  upon  which  their 
efforts  should  be  concentrated.  The  third  French 
colonial  empire  is  founded;  it  has  been  well  planned 
and  well  conquered ;  it  now  remains  for  us  to  develop 
its  full  value.  We  shall  succeed  therein  by  dint  of 
a  large  measure  of  decentralization,  and  a  return  to 
a  more  liberal  economical  policy.  We  shall  succeed, 
also,  by  giving  to  our  functionaries  independence  and 
stability,  and  by  ceasing  to  impose  upon  the  natives 
our  complicated  legislation,  by  striving  to  train  the 
future  colonists  to  independence  and  enterprise.  This 
is  a  long  task ;  above  all,  it  is  an  educational  task. 

1  M.  Tirman,  studying  the  law  of  progression  of  the  different  races  at 
the  present  time  represented  in  Algeria,  has  calculated  that  within  twenty 
years  Algeria  will  have  395,000  Frenchmen,  against  440,000  foreigners 
(Italians  and  Spaniards  principally)  and  5,000,000  natives;  in  forty 
years,  710,000  French,  against  940,000  foreigners  and  7,000,000  natives; 
in  sixty  years,  1,280,000  French,  against  2,000,000  foreigners  and  10,000,000 
natives.  Will  Algeria,  French  in  fact,  be  injured  by  the  preponderance 
of  foreigners  in  her  territory?  We  may  doubt  it,  from  the  circumstance 
that  they  are  not  all  of  the  same  nationality,  and  belong  to  countries 
of  origin  so  different  as  Spain  and  Italy.  In  the  same  manner,  it 
would  be  foolish  to  perceive  danger  in  the  share  which  the  people  of 
Mauritius  are  taking  in  the  work  of  colonizing  Madagascar,  and  the  more 
80,  as  the  latter  have  preserved  French  sympathies  under  British  rule. 


198  THE  EVOLUTION  OF  FRANCE. 


CHAPTER  VIII. 

THE  CRISIS  (1885-1889). 

The  Majority  melts  away.  —  The  Elections  of  1885 :  a  Reactionary  Half- 
victory.  —  Mistakes  and  Blundering.  —  A  Brave  List  of  Appropriations. 
—  Minister  Rouvier.  —  General  Boulanger's  First  Exploits.  —  Unex- 
pected Scandals.  —  Election  of  M.  Carnot.  —  The  Committee  of  the 
Rue  Seze.  — Exposition  of  1889.  —  The  Supreme  Court.  —  The  Elections  : 
the  End  of  Boulangism. 


When  the  emotion  and  wrath  of  the  first  moment  had 
subsided,  the  deputies,  who  had  overthrown  the  Jules 
Ferry  ministry,  and  public  opinion,  which  had  gone 
astray  in  their  wake,  felt  a  presentiment  of  the  difficul- 
ties and  perils  which  the  Republic  would  speedily  be 
called  upon  to  face.  Jules  Ferry  was  the  only  man 
capable  of  gathering  a  true  majority  in  the  midst  of 
the  existing  Chamber.  Except  for  him,  recourse  could 
be  had  only  to  concentration,  badly  upheld  in  Parlia- 
ment, misunderstood  by  the  nation,  and  whose  discredit 
was  about  to  be  increased  by  a  series  of  unfortunate 
experiences.  On  April  6,  1885,  after  long  parleying, 
M.  Henri  Brisson  accepted  the  presidency  of  the  Coun- 
cil ^  and  the  ungrateful  task  of  preparing  the  legislative 

1  He  had  for  colleagues :  MM.  de  Freycinet,  Allain-Targe,  Carnot, 
Goblet,  Demole,  Pierre  Legrand,  Sarrien,  Herve'  Mangon,  General  Cam- 
penon,  and  Admiral  Galiber.  'Nearly  all  the  civil  ministers  in  this  Cabinet 
were  politicians.  M.  de  Freycinet  and  M.  Carnot,  who  were  destined,  a 
little  later  on,  to  play  leading  parts,  the  one  as  Minister  of  War,  the  other 
as  head  of  the  State,  were  engineers.  M.  de  Freycinet  belonged  to  a  noble 
family  of  the  south  of  France.  Gambetta  had  associated  him  with  him- 
self at  Tours,  during  the  war  of  1870,  and  the  interest  which  M.  de 


THE  CRISIS.  199 

elections.  M.  Brissbn  belonged  to  the  advanced  shade 
of  republican  opinion ;  but  if  he  had  blamed  the  policy 
of  his  predecessor,  he  did  not  try  to  avoid  —  to  the 
detriment  of  France's  honor  and  interests  —  the  re- 
sponsibilities which  resulted  for  him  therefrom.  Only 
concessions  of  detail  could  be  made  to  the  radicals ;  the 
Pantheon  became  disaffected  on  the  occasion  of  Victor 
Hugo's  funeral,  and  in  his  indulgence  for  the  manifes- 
tations of  May  24,  which  had  set  up  seditious  signs 
along  the  highway,  M.  Allain-Targ6  established  a 
distinction,  which  has  remained  famous,  between  flags 
and  banners.     But  when  it  became  necessary  to  obtain 


Freycinet  cherished  for  matters  relating  to  the  army  dated  from  that 
period.  His  firmness  of  character  was  not,  unhappily,  equal  to  his  ex- 
treme intelligence.  On  the  other  hand,  this  was  what  distinguished 
M.  Carnot:  a  nobility  of  heart  and  a  rectitude  of  judgment  which  are 
rarely  met  with  in  such  a  degree  shone  in  him.  Graduated,  like  M.  de 
Freycinet,  from  the  Polytechnic  School,  he  early  became  a  deputy  for  the 
Cote  d'Or,  his  native  province.  The  future  President  was  the  grandson 
of  "the  great  Carnot,"  of  the  revolutionary  epoch;  his  father  had  been 
minister  in  1848.  Thus  it  came  to  pass  that  the  three  generations  of  this 
illustrious  family  were  connected  with  the  three  Republics  which  have 
governed  France.  M.  Goblet,  a  lawyer  of  talent,  and  who  afterwards 
became  one  of  the  leaders  of  the  radical  socialist  party,  had  a  rather 
chimerical  mind.  M.  Henri  Brissac,  now  President  of  the  Chamber  of 
Deputies  and  head  of  the  ministry,  enjoyed  a  reputation  for  austerity 
which  arose,  chiefly,  from  the  rigidity  of  his  mien  and  of  his  ideas.  The 
ministers,  with  rare  exceptions,  were  always  chosen  from  the  Parliament 
—  more  frequently  from  among  the  deputies  than  from  among  the  sena- 
tors. Of  course,  once  chosen,  they  had  the  right  to  be  present  at  the  sit- 
tings of  the  Chamber  to  which  they  belonged,  as  well  as  to  those  of  the 
one  to  which  they  did  not  belong,  and  they  spoke,  without  discrimination, 
from  the  tribune  of  either  one.  The  Senate  always  contained  a  certain 
number  of  retired  functionaries,  former  military  men,  former  prefects, 
wealthy  business  men,  and  so  forth.  But  in  the  Chamber,  during  the 
whole  duration  of  the  present  Republic,  three  categories  of  men  have  pre- 
dominated, —  lawyers,  physicians,  landed  proprietors.  As  a  rule,  the  first 
were  moderate  republicans,  the  second  radicals,  and  the  last  monarchists. 
There  have  been,  also,  civil  engineers,  a  few  journalists,  and  one  or  two 
ecclesiastics.  The  type  of  the  professional  politician  does  not  exist  in 
France. 


200  THE  EVOLUTION   OF  FRANCE. 

the  sanction  of  the  Chambers  to  the  protectorate  treaties 
signed  in  1884  at  Hud  and  Pnom-Penh,  when  a  pro- 
posal of  amnesty  in  favor  of  political  criminals  and  a 
demand  for  the  impeachment  of  Jules  Ferry  and  his 
colleagues  were  presented  on  the  tribune,  the  Brisson 
Cabinet  found  arrayed  before  it  the  Right  united  to  the 
Extreme  Left,  and  found  itself  sustained  by  the  mass 
of  the  Ferry  forces.  They  supported  him  against  their 
will,  it  is  true,  and  with  a  sort  of  disdainful  repug- 
nance, accepting  from  him  no  guidance,  and  stimulated 
rather  by  the  attacks  of  the  opposition  than  by  the 
authority  of  the  government.  This  majority,  more- 
over, took  form  again  only  to  melt  away  afresh  at  every 
moment;  parliamentary  enterprise  took  advantage  of 
this  to  give  itself  full  scope ;  never  was  there  seen  such 
an  abundance  of  projects  for  laws ;  the  greater  part,  of 
doubtful  opportuneness,  tended,  by  their  originality,  to 
fix  in  public  the  name,  hitherto  obscure,  of  the  deputy 
to  whose  initiative  they  were  due. 

The  general  elections  were  about  to  take  place;  in 
proportion  as  they  approached,  the  uncertainty  as  to 
their  probable  result  increased.  The  opposition  had 
serious  wrongs  to  bring  forward ;  the  conservative  party 
was  without  doubt  a  prey  to  divisions,  which  enfeebled 
it;  but  the  Orleanists,  the  Victoriens,  the  Jeromists, 
could  come  into  accord  for  the  purpose  of  destruction ; 
on  that  ground  recent  events  rendered  an  understanding 
easier.  Thus  the  most  enthusiastic  advocates  of  the 
general  elections,  those  who  had  hoped  that,  by  estab- 
lishing it,  universal  suffrage  would  be  emancipated, 
politics  removed  from  local  influences,  and  the  electors 
brought  to  vote  for  ideas  rather  than  for  men, —  even 
these  felt  their  confidence  shaken  and  asked  themselves 
whether,  by  hastening  reform,  they  had  not  forestalled 


THE  CRISIS.  201 

the  hour  when  the  state  of  electoral  habits  would  permit 
it  to  bear  all  its  fruits.  Everything  is  not  accom- 
plished, when  a  progressive  step  is  decreed;  it  must 
also  be  within  the  scope  of  those  to  whom  it  is  to  be 
applied.  While  continuing  to  admit,  in  theory,  the 
superiority  of  the  general  elections,  many  now  thought 
that  it  would  have  been  better  to  retain  the  district 
elections,  and  fell  to  regretting  their  vote.^ 

It  was  plain  that  the  electors,  on  voting  day,  felt 
that  they  had  lost  their  bearings  and  had  gone  astray ; 
their  embarrassment  could  be  divined  at  the  sight  of 
that  of  the  candidates;  the  political  groups  tried  to 
unite  against  the  common  enemy,  and,  searching  their 
platforms  for  the  points  upon  which  there  was  com- 
munity of  sentiments  on  the  one  side  and  on  the  other, 
were  quite  naturally  led  to  draw  up  vague  and  colorless 
manifestoes,  where  the  only  thing  that  was  noticeable 
was  that  which  was  absent;  or  they  fashioned  incredi- 
bly motley  lists,  of  such  a  nature  that  it  was  impossible 
for  honest  electors  to  drop  them  in  the  ballot-box  with- 
out having  introduced  into  them  a  good  many  modifica- 
tions. The  "Republican  Alliance"  of  the  radical  and 
progressist  committees  of  Paris,  presided  over  by  M. 
Tolain,  published  a  manifesto  whose  inoderate  tenden- 
cies turned  out  to  be  almost  falsified  by  the  platform 
which  was  coupled  with  it;  the  list  of  candidates 
patronized  by  the  Alliance  ran  from  M.  Fr^d^ric  Passy 

1  In  the  district  elections  (scrutin  d'arrondissenient)  the  department 
is  divided  up  into  electoral  circles  called  arrondissements ;  each  circle 
nominates  a  deputy.  The  general  election  (scrutin  de  liste),  on  the  con- 
trary, assumes,  as  its  name  implies,  that  the  electors  vote  for  a  list  of 
deputies,  instead  of  for  a  single  deputy.  If  one  department  has  the  right 
to  eight  deputies, — the  number  of  deputies  being  calculated  on  the  nu- 
merical basis  of  the  population,  —  every  elector  in  that  department  will 
inscribe  on  his  ballot  eight  different  names.  The  advantages  and  the 
inconveniences  of  the  two  systems  are  immediately  apparent. 


202  THE  EVOLUTION  OF  FRANCE. 

to  M.  Lockroy,  passing  through  MM.  Spuller,  Ranc, 
and  Brisson.^  The  radicals  of  more  advanced  hue  drew 
up  the  "platform  of  the  Rue  Cadet,"  wherein  something 
was  said  about  "  the  sovereignty  of  universal  suffrage  " 
and  "laws  for  the  protection  and  emancipation  of 
labor."  Nevertheless,  it  could  be  seen  that  the  Senate 
and  the  Presidency  of  the  Republic  no  longer  figured 
among  the  institutions  to  be  suppressed.  The  danger 
apprehended  sobered  down  the  least  wise,  with  the 
exception,  of  course,  of  those  who  consider  absolute 
extremes  of  views  not  only  as  the  most  sacred  of  duties, 
but  as  the  basis  of  all  fruitful  politics.  Such  persons, 
assembled  in  a  "Central  Committee  of  the  radical- 
socialistic  republicans  of  the  Seine,"  published  a  "pre- 
cise "  platform.  An  opinion  as  to  its  precision  may  be 
formed  from  the  following  summary :  There  is  no  longer 
either  Senate,  or  President,  or  minister ;  there  are  only 
plain  functionaries  appointed  by  a  single  Assembly  and 
always  subject  to  revoke  by  it.  The  Commune  shall  be 
autonomous,  the  magistracy  elective,  education  entire, 
taxes  progressive ;  there  shall  no  longer  be  any  appro- 
priations for  public  worship,  no  more  death  penalty,  no 
more  standing  armies,  no  more  inheritance  in  direct 
collateral  line,  no  more  difference  between  the  natural 
and  the  legitimate  child;  functionaries  shall  be  pecu- 
niarily and  personally  responsible ;  the  property  of  reli- 
gious bodies  shall  be  confiscated;  all  contracts  which 
have  alienated  public  property  (mines,  canals,  railways) 
shall  be  revoked.  ...  It  is  difficult  to  say  what  our 
descendants  will  think  of  such  a  conception  of  "  public 
affairs."  Perhaps,  one  of  these  days,  some  of  these 
ideas  will  be  regarded  as  reasonable  and  capable  of 

1  For  the  details  of  the  electoral  candidacies,  see  I'Ami^e  Politique, 
by  Andre'  Daniel,  for  1885. 


THE  CRISIS.  203 

realization ;  but  at  the  time  when  they  were  thus  for- 
mulated, they  represented  only  that  silly  adoration  of 
logic  and  of  the  absolute  which  has  so  often  rendered 
sterile  the  finest  and  most  solid  qualities  of  the  French 
mind. 

The  Left  Centre  also  lacked  guidance  and  unity  of 
action.  M.  Ribot,^  in  the  Pas-de-Calais,  M.  Francis 
Charmes,  in  Cantal,  united  to  the  opportunists,  and 
frankly  admitting  that  some  mistakes  had  been  com- 
mitted, endeavored  to  bring  about  the  union  of  the 
republicans;  in  Seine-et-Oise,  on  the  other  hand,  the 
"liberal  republican  committee,"  in  which  people  were 
astonished  to  find  MM.  Barth^lemy  Saint-Hilaire  and 
Ldon  Say,  published  a  manifesto  in  which  reference 
was  made  to  "persecuting  fanaticism,"  and  in  which 
the  "  Republic  of  the  opportunists  "  was  represented  as 
a  "permanent  deficit  and  squandering."  This  state- 
ment was  not  without  analogy,  in  its  violence,  with 
that  which  seventy-six  deputies  who  had  come  out 
from  the  Right  had  made  public  on  September  2,  and. 
at  the  bottom  of  which  ten  of  their  colleagues  had 
refused  to  sign  their  names. 

The  partisans  of  the  princes  entreated  them  to  main- 
tain silence,  in  order  that  a  favorable  indistinctness 
might  hover  over  the  future.  A  central  committee, 
presided  over  by  M.  Lambert  de  Sainte-Croix,  exhorted 
the  electors  to  make  the  greatest  haste  to  "  stop  France 
on  the  steep  road  to  ruin  and  anarchy."     There  was  no 


^  M.  Ribot  was  a  lawyer.  Later  on,  he  played  a  prominent  part  as 
Minister  of  Foreign  Affairs,  of  the  Interior,  and  of  Finance.  M.  Francis 
Charmes  was  the  second  of  three  brothers,  all  of  whom  enjoyed  their 
hour  of  celebrity,  either  as  writers  or  as  deputies.  We  have  frequently 
mentioned  already  MM.  Barthelemy  Saint-Hilaire  and  Leon  Say,  both 
members  of  the  Institute.  M.  Leon  Say,  grandson  of  J.-B.  Say,  who  died 
recently,  was  an  economist  and  financier  of  great  distinction. 


204  THE  EVOLUTION  OF  FRANCE. 

mention  of  future  solutions  of  the  governmental  prob- 
lem. "  Each  man  hides  his  flag,  each  one  conceals  to 
which  party  he  belongs,"  said  Prince  Napoleon  of  the 
conservative  union,  in  a  letter  to  a  friend,  to  whom  he 
was  explaining  his  reasons  for  abstaining.  The  fact  is, 
that  in  order  to  unite  upon  one  list  MM.  de  Cassagnac, 
Decazes,  Keller,  Haussmann,  Edouard  Herv^,  de  Mun, 
and  Robert  Mitchell,^  it  was  impossible  to  be  otherwise 
than  vague  and  lacking  in  precision. 

The  elections  took  place  on  October  4;  176  reac- 
tionaries and  127  republicans  were  elected;  270  seats 
remained  to  be  balloted  for  again.  The  Nord,  the 
Pas-de-Calais,  Somme,  Calvados,  Eure,  Finistdre,  the 
Landes,  the  Upper  and  Lower  Pyrenees,  Indre,  Tarn- 
et-Garonne,  Ardeche,  and  Aveyron  were  conquered  by 
the  reactionaries.  In  Paris  only  4  deputies  were  elected 
out  of  38 ;  the  Cl^menceau  list  received,  on  an  average, 
150,000  votes,  and  the  Tolain  list  105,000.  The  revo- 
lutionists received  26, 000  and  the  conservatives  87,000, 
But  while  the  disappointment  of  the  republicans,  far 
from  degenerating  into  panic,  rendered  the  union  of 
their  ranks  more  complete,  the  reactionaries  appeared 
to  be  intoxicated  with  their  triumph.  M.  de  Cassagnac 
revealed  too  early  "the  mental  reservations"  of  his 

1  M.  de  Cassagnac,  the  son  of  a  former  prefect  under  the  Empire,  a 
mad  reactionary,  had  founded  a  journal,  I'Autoritd,  which  he  still  directs, 
and  which  has  always  been  a  party  organ  not  over-scrupulous  in  its  choice 
of  arguments,  and  very  violent  in  its  expressions.  The  Due  Decazes  had 
played,  under  the  presidency  of  Marshal  MacMahon,  the  part  which  is 
already  familiar.  M.  Keller  was  a  legitimist.  M.  Haussmann,  by  his  very 
name,  was  a  feudal  retainer  of  the  Empire.  M.  ;6douard  Herve,  member 
of  the  Academie  Fran9aise  and  manager  of  an  Orleanist  sheet,  the  Soleil, 
was  the  friend  of  the  Comte  de  Paris.  As  for  M.  de  Mun,  a  former  cavalry 
officer,  he  had  been  long  enough  on  the  retired  list  to  found  the  work  of 
the  Catholic  circles  of  workingmen,  from  which  much  was  expected,  from 
a  religious  point  of  view,  and  whose  effect  has  not  been  great.  Evidently, 
it  would  be  difficult  to  form  a  less  homogeneous  group. 


I 


THE   CRISIS.  205 

friends,  and  public  opinion,  which  at  bottom  remained 
hostile  to  every  form  of  revolution,  had  time  to  recover 
itself;  the  vote  by  ballot  of  October  18  only  returned 
25  reactionaries  against  244  republicans.  From  the 
numerical  point  of  view,  the  situation  was  much  the 
same  as  in  1877,  but  the  moral  check  was  more  serious ; 
it  struck  at  institutions  through  men.^ 

The  opposition  on  the  Right  now  comprised  65 
Bonapartists,  73  monarchists,  and  64  reactionaries  of 
undecided  shade  ;2  the  Left,  107  radicals  and  275  re- 
publicans, of  whom  at  least  75  inclined  to  radicalism. 
Beginning  with  the  very  first  sittings,  it  was  easy  to 
see  that  M.  Brisson's  appeal,  which  courageously  ex- 
tolled a  business  policy,  would  not  be  listened  to.  As 
soon  as  Tonkin  came  again  into  question,  the  Right 
and  the  Extreme  Left  came  to  an  understanding.  The 
government  proposed  to  carry  over  into  the  year  1886 
certain  appropriations  which  had  passed  the  vote  in 
1885,  had  not  been  expended,  and  would  complete  the 
sum  necessary  for  1886.  A  coalition,  which  ran  from 
MM.  Raoul-Duval  and  Dompierre  d'Hornoy  to  MM. 
Cldmenceau  and  Rochefort,  decided  upon  the  appoint- 
ment of  a  committee  of  thirty-three  members  charged 
with  examining  in  detail  everything  which  was  done 
in  connection  with  Tonkin;  twenty-six  deputies  who 
favored  evacuation  and  seven  who  were  opposed  to  it 
were  elected,  and  the  committee,  dividing  up  at  once 

1  It  may  be  interesting  to  compare  the  totals  of  the  republican  and 
reactionary  votes  in  the  elections  of  1876,  1877, 1881,  and  1885 ;  the  figures 
are  as  follows :  — 

1876 4,028,153  republicans ;       3,202,335  reactionaries. 

1877 4,367,202  republicans ;       3,577,882  reactionaries. 

1878 5,128,442  republicans ;        1,789,767  reactionaries. 

1885 4,.">27,162  republicans ;       3,541,384  reactionaries. 

2  It  is  to  be  noted  that  the  principal  leaders,  MM.  de  Broglie,  Decazes, 
de  Meaux,  de  Fourtou,  bad  not  been  able  to  secure  re-election. 


206  THE  EVOLUTION  OF  FRANCE. 

into  three  sub-committees,  military,  diplomatic,  and 
economical,  presided  over  by  MM.  Lockroy,  Andrieux, 
and  Boysset,  set  ardently  to  work.  It  was  not  only  in 
Tonkin  and  abroad  that  these  events  caused  excitement ; 
they  aroused  the  most  energetic  protests  in  the  country- 
districts,  and  under  the  pressure  of  public  sentiment 
confusion  arose  among  the  abettors  of  the  plot.  The 
dismissal  of  General  Bri^re  de  I'lsle,  who  was  entirely 
favorable  to  Tonkin  and  constituted  an  exoneration  for 
Jules  Ferry,  added  to  their  embarrassment.  Other  tes- 
timony was  brought  forward  which  made  it  impossible 
for  the  committee  to  propose  evacuation ;  nevertheless, 
it  did  propose  it,  in  very  circuitous  language;  the 
reports  presented  by  M.  Pelletan  for  Tonkin,  and  by 
M.  Hubbard  for  Madagascar,  were  not  of  a  nature  to 
facilitate  either  the  pacification  of  Indo-China  or  the 
happy  issue  of  the  negotiations  with  the  Hovas.  The 
sad  debate  lasted  through  four  sittings,  from  the  21st 
to  the  24th  of  December.  The  Right  received  almost 
with  insult  the  only  one  of  its  members,  Monseigneur 
Freppel,  who  pronounced  in  favor  of  the  appropriations ; 
M.  Cl^menceau  sought  subterfuges  for  the  means  of 
presenting  his  plan.  The  President  of  the  Council, 
who  had  spoken  with  much  energy  and  nobility  before 
the  committee,  repeated  his  declarations ;  on  the  24th, 
at  ten  o'clock  at  night,  the  appropriations  were  carried, 
by  274  votes  against  270;  the  absence  of  twenty-four 
sick  deputies  on  the  Right  had  saved  Tonkin. 

It  was  a  bad  year  for  all  the  world:  twice  Europe 
had  believed  war  to  be  imminent;  quarrels  had  been  on 
the  verge  of  breaking  out  between  England  and  Russia, 
between  Germany  and  Spain;  finally,  the  Servians 
and  the  Bulgarians  had  come  to  blows ;  Alphonso  XII. 
was  dead,  and  an  Austrian  regency  was  established  at 


THE  CRISIS.  207 

Madrid.  The  badly  secured  succession  in  Holland, 
the  Constitution  of  Denmark  endangered,  the  question 
of  Ireland,  which  was  becoming  more  pressing  day  by 
day  and  more  difficult  of  solution, —  all  this  darkened 
the  political  horizon.  For  France  the  year  1886  was 
not  to  bring  either  ameliorations  or  changes.  "The 
year  1886,"  says  M.  Andr^  Daniel,^  "was,  at  home,  a 
year  of  ambiguities,  fertile  in  trifling  incidents,  sterile 
in  practical  results;  abroad,  a  year  of  apprehension 
and  incoherence.  The  Freycinet  Cabinet  spent  eleven 
months  in  trying  to  get  its  balance;  it  wasted  its 
strength,  its  time,  and  its  credit  in  the  effort  to  detach 
from  the  Extreme  Left  half  a  hundred  votes,  and  it  did 
not  succeed;  it  is  impossible  to  discern  what  leading 
thought  inspired  her  foreign  policy." 

The  Freycinet  Cabinet,  which  assumed  power  on 
January  7,  1886,^  inherited  a  situation  which  might 
well  have  discouraged  the  bravest ;  the  Chamber,  upon 
which  the  unlucky  and  obscure  influence  of  M.  Cle- 
menceau  ^  continued  to  weigh  on  the  Right,  and  on  the 
Left  the  unacknowledged  intrigues  of  unconstitutional 
ambitions  presented  the  most  insecure  sort  of  ground 
for  a  government  to  adventure  upon;  it  required  M.  de 


1  Andre  Daniel,  I'Ann^e  Politique,  1886. 

2  It  comprised  MM.  Baihaut,  Demole,  Sarrien,  Develle,  Granet,  Lock- 
roy,  General  Boulanger,  and  Admiral  Aube.  MM.  Goblet  and  Sadi-Carnot 
had  retained  the  posts  of  Public  Education  and  Finance,  and  M.  de  Frey- 
cinet had  taken,  together  with  the  presidency  of  the  Council,  the  port- 
folio of  Foreign  Affairs,  to  which  he  had  joined  the  countries  of  the 
protectorate.  On  December  28,  1885,  M.  Jules  Grevy  had  been  re-elected, 
by  457  votes  out  of  589,  President  of  the  French  Republic  for  seven  years. 

8  Though  a  doctor  of  medicine,  M.  Georges  Clemenceau  did  not  practise 
his  profession  long.  Politics  attracted  him.  He  managed  the  Justice. 
He  took  pleasure  in  machinations,  in  shady  and  tangled  organizations. 
Eventually,  the  numerous  passions  which  he  had  provoked,  the  interests 
which  he  had  betrayed,  the  persons  whom  he  had  compromised,  turned 
against  him,  and  disqualified  him  for  public  life. 


208  THE  EVOLUTION  OF  FRANCE. 

Freycinet's  incomparable  dexterity  to  steer  between  the 
reefs,  to  embroil  the  contradictors,  to  ward  off  blows, 
and  to  obtain  the  passage  of  the  double-faced  orders  of 
the  day,  wherein  ambiguity  veiled  the  lack  of  confi- 
dence. The  Servo-Bulgarian  conflict  was  a  subject  of 
uneasiness ;  the  economical  crisis,  from  which  the  whole 
world  had  been  suffering  since  1882,  was  another. 
Strikes  in  the  United  States,  modern  Jacquerie  (peas- 
ant risings)  in  the  mining  region  of  Charleroi,  troubles 
in  England,  seemed  to  presage  a  social  revolution.  In 
France  the  Decazeville  strike  had  been  stained  with 
blood  by  the  assassination  of  the  representative  of  the 
mining  company,  M.  Watrin,  and  the  act  in  itself  ter- 
rified public  opinion  less  than  the  savage  scenes  amid 
which  it  took  place.  And  in  spite  of  this  the  country, 
far  from  being  weaned  from  the  Republic,  as  it  had 
appeared  to  be  at  the  time  of  the  elections,  was  coming 
back  to  it  little  by  little.^  It  could  be  felt  that  the 
reactionary  current  of  1885  was  already  stopped;  the 
fact  became  certain  when  one-half  of  the  general  coun- 
cillors were  to  be  replaced  (August,  1886);  as  the  law 
compels  the  departmental  Assemblies  to  keep  out  of 
politics,  universal  suffrage  could  designate  the  conserva- 
tives without  a  constitutional  shock  resulting  there- 
from. Nevertheless,  the  results  were  rather  favorable 
than  otherwise  to  the  republican  party. ^  This  was  all 
the  more  interesting  because  these  elections  were  in 
progress  at  the  moment  when  the  ill-timed  expulsion  of 
the  princes  had  just  taken  place.     Nothing  afforded  a 

1  On  February  14,  Ardeche,  Corsica,  the  Landes,  Loz^re,  elected 
republican  deputies. 

2  Out  of  1434  councillors  nominated,  1002  were  republicans  and  432  con- 
servatives ;  the  ballot  resulted  in  a  victory  for  987  republicans  and  449 
conservatives.  This  meant  for  the  former  the  loss  of  fifteen  seats  only 
(two  new  cantons  had  been  created). 


I 


THE  CRISIS.  209 

better  proof  as  to  the  degree  in  which  the  country  would 
henceforth  remain  indifferent  to  dynastic  agitations. 

In  this  affair  the  government  acted  with  imprudence 
and  with  levity;  at  the  beginning  of  his  ministry, 
M.  de  Freycinet  had  himself  rejected  the  law  of  expul- 
sion which  the  radicals  presented.  Had  the  festival 
given  on  May  15,  by  the  Comte  de  Paris,  on  the  occa- 
sion of  the  marriage  of  his  daughter,  Princess  Am^lie, 
to  the  Prince  Royal  of  Portugal,  Duke  of  Braganza, 
changed  the  situation  ?  No  one  could  seriously  assert 
that;  the  republicans,  by  making  this  marriage  the 
pretext  for  a  law  of  defence  for  republican  institutions, 
very  awkwardly  emphasized  one  of  the  favorite  argu- 
ments of  the  partisans  of  a  monarchical  form  of  govern- 
ment. At  that  epoch,  when  the  Republic  had  not  as 
yet  definitely  emerged  from  its  isolation  in  Europe, 
the  royalists  could  logically  recall  the  fact  that  alli- 
ances between  reigning  houses  facilitate  and  create 
alliances  between  peoples  and  between  governments; 
it  seemed,  moreover,  that  there  were  other  examples 
within  reach,  and  the  force  of  this  argument  was  even 
admitted  by  a  fair  number  of  republicans,  who  confined 
themselves  to  asserting  that  this  inferiority  was  com- 
pensated for  by  the  other  advantages  which  the  repub- 
lican form  of  government  offers.  Moreover,  as  it  was 
difficult  to  expel,  because  of  a  simple  reception,  all  the 
princes  and  princesses  belonging  to  families  which  had 
reigned  in  France,  they  stopped  short  at  a  half-way 
measure  which  only  struck  at  the  pretenders  to  the 
throne  and  their  male  heirs  in  the  order  of  primogeni- 
ture. This  repeal  of  the  Salic  Law,  and  this  consecra- 
tion of  the  order  of  succession  to  the  throne,  constituted 
a  second  and  no  less  serious  blunder.  They  committed  a 
third :  the  princes  who  belonged  to  the  army,  the  Due  de 


i 


210  THE  EVOLUTION  OF  FRANCE. 

Chartres,  who  had  fought  so  nobly  in  1870,  the  Due 
d'Aumale,  whose  name  will  ever  remain  bound  up 
with  the  history  of  the  conquest  of  Algeria,  were 
struck  from  the  rolls.  The  Due  d'Aumale  wrote  to 
the  President  of  the  Republic  a  letter  of  protest,  incor- 
rect as  to  form,  noble  and  upright  as  to  matter.  The 
government  was  obliged  to  reply  by  an  order  of  ex- 
pulsion, and  the  prince,  on  leaving  France,  made  it  a 
royal  gift:  he  willed  to  the  Institute,  of  which  he  was 
a  member,  the  restored  ch§,teau  of  Chantilly  and  the 
marvellous  collections  amassed  there. ^ 

The  fact  that  these  occurrences  had  not  exercised 
any  influence  upon  the  result  of  the  elections,  and  that 
no  excitement  had  made  its  appearance  in  the  electoral 
circles,  opened  the  eyes  of  some  conservatives;  one 
of  them,  M.  Edgar  Raoul-Duval,  set  about  founding  a 
"republican  Right";  he  did  not  succeed;  that  honor 
was  destined  to  fall  to  others.  But  the  remarkable 
speech  which  he  made  during  the  discussion  over  the 
appropriations  of  1887  remained,  as  it  were,  a  monu- 
ment of  political  good  sense  and  honesty. ^ 

This  budget  of  appropriations  deserves  a  place  apart 

1  In  complete  contrast  with  this  chivalric  condact  did  the  attitude  of 
General  Boulanger,  Minister  of  War,  stand  out ;  while  under  the  command 
of  the  Due  d'Aumale,  the  general  had,  in  former  days,  written  him  sev- 
eral letters  which  contained  more  of  the  courtier  spirit  than  of  hierarchi- 
cal military  respect.  These  letters  were  published  ;  at  first,  the  Minister 
of  War  denied  having  written  them,  and  was  speedily  convicted  of  false- 
hood. 

2  The  step  taken  by  M.  Raoul-Duval  responded  to  the  need  which  was 
more  and  more  plainly  manifest  to  the  eyes  of  all  men  in  political  life. 
"Will  they  understand,  at  last,"  Jules  Ferry  had  said,  on  August  18,  at 
the  opening  session  of  the  Council  Greneral  of  the  Vosges,  "  that,  outside 
of  the  Republic,  frankly  and  resolutely  accepted,  there  is  nothing  for  con- 
servatives who  are  worthy  of  the  name,  either  in  the  way  of  a  serious 
political  part  to  claim,  or  of  effective  action  to  exert  upon  great  national 
interests? "  The  same  ideas,  taken  up  later  on  by  M.  Waldeck-Rousseau, 
inspired  him  with  one  of  his  most  eloquent  speeches. 


THE  CRISIS.  211 

in  the  rather  colorless  history  of  the  Republic's  budgets, 
because  of  the  courageous  sincerity  with  which  it  was 
prepared  by  the  Minister  of  Finance,  M.  Sadi-Camot. 
A  year  earlier,  in  June  and  July,  1885,  an  exhaustive 
discussion  upon  French  finances  had  taken  place  before 
Parliament.  1  It  had  been  established  that  the  public 
debt  (20  milliards)  came  entirely  from  the  previous 
governments,  and  that  the  Second  Empire  alone  fig- 
ured there  to  the  amount  of  12  milliards ;  that,  on  the 
other  hand,  the  redeemable  debt  (6  milliards)  was  of 
republican  origin,  but  that  half  of  it  had  been  devoted  to 
making  over  the  munitions  of  war  and  the  other  half  to 
public  works ;  and,  finally,  that  the  floating  debt,  which 
amounted  to  1,400,000,000  francs,  comprised  726,000,- 
000  francs  of  deficit  anterior  to  1870.^  It  is  not  a  waste 
of  time  to  recall  these  figures  here,  because  of  the  exag- 
gerated and  unjust  criticisms  which  the  parties  in  oppo- 
sition daily  bestowed  upon  the  republican  finances.  On 
the  other  hand,  the  fact  that,  in  three  annual  budgets,  it 
was  possible  to  effect  an  economy  of  75,000,000  francs  on 
ordinary  expenses,  and  that  the  supplementary  appropri- 
ations had  been  brought  down  from  200,000,000  francs 
in  1882  to  30,000,000  francs  in  1884,  and  the  additional 
fact  that  in  the  budget  for  1887  M.  Carnot  had  been  able 
to  make  a  fresh  saving  of  50,000,000  francs  on  the  dif- 
ferent ministerial  departments,  indicate  to  what  a  pitch 
the  squandering  had  attained,  and  what  was  the  cost 
price  of  that  famous  administration  which  Europe  is 
supposed  to  envy  us. 

These  50,000,000  francs  did  not  cover  the  deficit 
which  the  Minister  of  Finance  had  to  face.     The  total 

^  M.  Carnot,  already  Minister  of  Finance,  had  taken  part  in  it,  as  well 
as  MM.  Amagat,  Daynaud,  de  Soubeyran,  deputies,  Fresneau,  Blavier, 
senators,  and  Jules  Roche. 

2  Andre  Daniel,  I'Ann^e  Politique,  1885.    OfScial  Documents. 


212  THE  EVOLUTION   OF  FRANCE. 

receipts  for  1885  had  been  37,000,000  francs  short  of  the 
calculations  in  the  budget,  and  5,000,000  francs  below 
the  corresponding  product  of  1884;  the  first  two  months 
of  1886  already  showed  a  yield  inferior  by  23,500,000 
francs  to  the  estimates  of  the  budget,  and  by  15,500,- 
000  francs  to  the  corresponding  yield  of  1885.  Hence 
there  was  a  shortage  of  206,000,000  francs,  and  the 
government  had  promised  not  to  issue  a  loan,  not  to 
impose  any  new  taxes,  and  to  consolidate  the  extraor- 
dinary budget  with  the  ordinary  budget. 

M.  Carnot  obtained  76,000,000  francs  by  the  reform 
of  the  tax  on  liquors,  by  doubling  the  price  of  licenses, 
and  raising  the  tax  on  alcohol  from  156  to  215  francs  a 
hectolitre.  He  proposed  to  take  the  other  80,000,000 
francs  on  the  strength  of  Chapter  V.  from  the  Ministry 
of  Finance,  created  by  the  National  Assembly  for  the 
cancellation  of  the  six  years'  bonds.  M.  Carnot  asked 
leave  to  turn  into  a  public  debt  the  466,000,000  francs 
of  six  years'  bonds,  that  is  to  say,  to  issue  government 
bonds,  and  wished  to  make  it  complete  at  once ;  there- 
fore he  issued  1,466,000,000  francs  of  permanent  bonds 
at  three  per  cent,  in  order  to  cover,  at  the  same  time, 
152, 000, 000  francs  of  short-term  bonds  which  the  gov- 
ernment had  been  authorized  to  create  to  provide  for  the 
extraordinary  expenses  of  1886,  105,000,000  francs  of 
extraordinary  expenditure  indispensable  to  complete  the 
national  armament,  and  750,000,000  francs  destined  to 
reimburse  the  Caisse  des  D^p^ts, —  in  a  word,  to  "  release 
the  floating  debt."  That  certainly  was  a  sincere  and 
honest  budget ;  it  arraigned  "  the  dangers  and  obscurity 
of  our  finances,  and  simplified  public  book-keeping."^ 

1  The  loan  took  place  on  May  10 ;  the  State  offered  to  suhscribe  for 
18,947,367  francs.  The  subscriptions  amounted  to  401,819,513  francs.  Thus 
the  loan  was  covered  naore  than  twenty  times.  But  this  success  none  the 
less  indicated  stagnation  in  business. 


THE  CRISIS.  213 

But  the  Committee  on  the  Budget  stopped  at  a  half- 
way measure,  and  consented  only  to  the  issue  of  500,- 
000,000  francs.  Then,  by  gradually  rejecting  this  and 
accepting  that,  it  threw  the  whole  project  out  of  balance 
and  proposed,  at  the  last  moment,  to  place  a  tax  on  the 
revenue.^  The  disorder  was  complete  ;  the  Minister  of 
Finance  wished  to  resign ;  he  only  retained  his  portfolio 
from  patriotic  motives,  in  answer  to  the  entreaties  which 
were  made  to  him.  The  budget  as  a  whole  had  been 
sent  to  the  committee  ;  never  was  such  incoherence 
displayed ;  reductions,  assessments,  and  reforms,  all 
equally  unexpected,  were  voted  for.^  The  suppression 
of  the  sub-prefects,  which  had  been  decided  upon 
against  the  advice  of  the  government,  led  to  its  fall. 
The  ministry  left  behind  it  the  memory  of  a  career 
which  was  far  from  brilliant.  Its  undertakings  in 
general  had  not  been  lucky;  its  hand  had  been  heavy 
at  Chateauvillain,^  and  had  sinned  by  its  lightness  in 
the  East.*     No  one  regretted  it.     M.  Goblet,  who  had 

1  It  was  in  the  course  of  this  debate  on  the  budget  that,  on  November  6, 
1886,  M.  Raoul-Duval  made  the  great  speech  which  has  been  referred  to 
above. 

2  The  Tonkin  appropriations  united  only  269  votes  against  245. 

3  The  question  concerned  the  closing  of  a  chapel  which  had  been 
opened,  without  permission,  in  a  factory.  The  fact  that  the  proprietor  of 
the  factory  greeted  the  gendarmes  entrusted  with  the  duty  of  closing  the 
chapel  by  firing  several  shots  from  his  revolver  indicated  the  absence  of 
the  spirit  of  the  gospel  on  his  part,  but  did  not  justify  the  gendarmes  in 
returning  the  fire  by  volleys  which  cost  innocent  persons  their  lives. 

*  The  Servo-Bulgarian  dispute  once  settled,  Greece  had  remained 
armed,  strong  in  her  honest  rights,  and  still  waiting  for  the  promised  com- 
pensations, and  maintaining  her  claims,  which  it  was  plain  that  Europe 
would  once  more  refuse  to  sanctify.  M.  de  Freycinet  wished  to  intervene 
in  a  friendly  manner,  and  sent  M.  Delyannis,  by  our  minister,  M.  de  Mouy, 
a  note  in  which  France  begged  Greece  to  win  the  sympathy  of  Europe  by 
not  furnishing  a  pretext  for  a  fresh  conflict  in  the  Balkans.  The  note  was 
delivered  on  April  2.3;  on  the  2.5th  the  Greek  Cabinet  yielded,  and  on  the 
26th  the  ministers  of  Germany,  Austria,  England,  and  Russia  were  informed 
of  it ;  but  that  same  evening,  without  taking  any  notice  of  France's  action, 


214  THE  EVOLUTION  OF  FRANCE. 

just  rendered  services  to  public  education,  assumed  the 
presidency  of  the  Council,  and  obtained  the  vote  of 
two  monthly  instalments.^  His  language,  at  once  firm 
and  modest,  won  sympathy  for  him  and  somewhat 
reduced  the  tension  of  the  situation.  The  relaxation 
did  not  last  long ;  the  partial  elections  continued  to 
prove  that  the  country  was  still  attached  to  the  Repub- 
lic. But  in  the  Chamber,  the  debates  bore  witness  to 
the  presence  of  unconstitutional  parties,  whose  passions 
the  apparent  gravity  of  the  situation  abroad  did  not 
suffice  to  calm. 

There  had  been  a  sort  of  rustle  of  arms  throughout 
Europe.  M.  de  Bismarck  pretended  to  fear  the  influ- 
ence of  General  Boulanger,  whose  attitude,  it  is  true, 
had  its  alarming  aspects,  although  the  amplitude  of  his 
projects  for  military  reorganization  ^  indicated  rather 
proximately  peaceful  intentions.  In  reality,  the  chan- 
cellor wished  to  obtain  the  passage  of  the  military  term 
of  seven  years ;  in  order  to  effect  this,  by  the  way,  he 
was  forced  to  have  recourse  to  the  dissolution  of  the 
Reichstag  and  the  intervention  of  the  Pope.  Never- 
theless, these  rumors  of  war,  these  envenomed  attacks 

they  presented  an  ultimatum,  before  which  M.  Delj'annis  refused  to  bow. 
On  May  7  the  representatives  of  the  four  powers  left  Athens.  M.  de  Frey- 
cinet,  instead  of,  at  least,  leaving  M.  de  Mouy  there,  requested  him  to 
come  and  "confer  "  with  him,  while  Europe,  in  defiance  of  her  word  and 
her  obligations,  established  a  blockade  on  the  coasts  of  Greece.  M.  de 
Freycinet's  policy  had  been  lucky  ^vith  the  Vatican.  Leon  XIII.  put  an 
end  to  the  negotiations  which  China  had  entered  into  with  the  view  of 
getting  a  nuncio  sent  to  Pekin ;  in  that  way  France  would  have  lost  the 
influence  which  the  protectorate  of  the  Roman  Catholic  missions  gives  Jier 
in  the  Far  East. 

1  MM.  Sarrien,  Dauphin,  Berthelot,  and  Flourens  formed  the  new  Cabi- 
net, with  the  former  colleagues  of  M.  Goblet. 

2  General  Boulanger  had  withdrawn  the  projects  for  laws  which  his 
predecessors  had  presented,  and  had  replaced  them  with  a  sort  of  general 
code,  which  established  the  unity  of  oriijin  of  the  officers.  In  Alsace,  fif- 
teen protesting  deputies  {proiestaires)  were  elected. 


GENERAL    BOULANGER,    MINISTER    OF    WAR. 


UHIVBRSIT 


THE  CRISIS.  215 

on  the  part  of  the  German  press,  the  uneasiness  dis- 
played on  the  various  money  markets,  might,  by  their 
very  frequency,  act  upon  public  opinion,  or  at  least 
render  it  nervous  and  irritable.  Nothing  of  the  sort 
came  to  pass.  France  endured  this  new  trial  with 
every  appearance  of  the  most  haughty  calm ;  ^  and 
when  the  deplorable  Schnaebele  incident  occurred,  the 
nation's  dignified  attitude  and  the  composure  of  the 
Minister  of  Foreign  Affairs,  M.  Flourens,  were  suffi- 
cient in  themselves  to  win  the  mastery  over  M.  de 
Bismarck's  unjustifiable  provocations.  The  chancellor 
had  exceeded  all  bounds :  armaments  in  Germany,  ex- 
pulsions in  Alsace,  a  campaign  of  the  press,  —  every- 
thing had  been  brought  into  play.  In  the  end,  Europe 
clearly  perceived  whence  came  these  projects  of  assassi- 
nation against  her  peace.  Meanwhile  in  France  men 
began  to  understand  the  danger  which  would  be  incurred 
by  leaving  the  Ministry  of  War  any  longer  in  the  hands 
of  General  Boulanger;  his  ways  were  suspicious;  one 
could  detect  in  him  an  anxiety  to  attract  attention  of 
which  none  of  his  predecessors  had  furnished  an  exam- 
ple. The  popularity  which  he  already  enjoyed  in  cer- 
tain circles  was  disquieting  for  the  future.  Men  asked 
themselves  whether  the  Republic  was  about  to  enter 
upon  an  era  of  "pronunciamientos." 

The  Cabinet  was  overthrown  on  May  17,  1887,  on  a 
question  of  appropriations ;  the  whole  Right,  insensible 
to  an  appeal  which  M.  Goblet  had  indirectly  addressed 

1 M.  Flourens  did  not  belong  to  the  Parliament ;  he  only  became 
deputy  later  on,  when  he  was  minister ;  this  is  a  rare  occurrence.  He  was 
sought  out  in  the  Council  of  State,  where  he  had  made  a  specialty  of  the 
study  of  the  questions  of  foreign  policy  which  were  submitted  to  that  body 
for  examination.  M.  Flourens  was  a  clever  minister,  but  he  seems,  since 
that  date,  to  have  arrogated  to  himself  too  great  a  share  in  the  conclusion 
of  the  Franco-Russian  alliance,  which  was  not  so  much  his  work  as  he 
would  like  to  have  it  supposed. 


216  THE  EVOLUTION  OF  FRANCE. 

to  it,  ^nd  to  a  certain  firmness  of  character  of  which  he 
had  given  proof, ^  voted  against  him;  on  the  Left,  the 
desire  to  turn  General  Boulanger  out  of  power  caused 
numerous  defections  in  the  ministerial  ranks.  The 
crisis  was  particularly  long  and  difficult  to  unravel. 
Out  of  a  spirit  of  opposition,  the  Extreme  Left  upheld 
the  Minister  of  War;  never  had  it  shown  itself  more 
cross-grained  or  less  tractable ;  all  its  efforts  seemed  to 
tend  to  complicate  the  question  and  to  render  it  impos- 
sible of  solution.  It  certainly  was  one  of  those  parties 
which  "would  lose  ten  republics,  were  there  ten  to 
lose,  and  which  will  never  be  surpassed  in  the  art  of 
precipitating  democratic  institutions  upon  the  declivity 
of  irremediable  fall,  where  no  halt  is  possible.  "^  By 
getting  rid  of  General  Boulanger,  we  should  draw  down 
upon  us  the  reproach  of  having  yielded  "  to  the  fear  of 
Germany."  This  reproach  could  already  be  foreseen 
upon  the  lips  of  radicals  and  monarchists ;  it  required 
courage  and  vigor  to  brave  it.  M.  Rouvier  sacrificed 
himself,  and  formed  a  homogeneous  Cabinet,  around 
which  he  invited  all  men  of  order  and  good-will,  with- 
out distinction  of  opinions,  to  group  themselves.^ 

We  had  not  heard  the  last  of  the  ex-Minister  of  War. 
On  leaving  the  Rue  Saint-Dominique,  General  Boulan- 
ger, contrary  to  custom,  had  launched  an  order  of  the 
day  at  the  army;  in  it  he  spoke  of  "returning  to  the 
ranks,"  which  assuredly  was  far  from  his  thoughts. 
When  he  set  out  for  Clermont-Ferrand,  where  he  had 


1 M.  Goblet  had,  in  particular,  dissolved  the  municipal  council  of 
Marseilles,  which  had  adjourned  its  meeting  of  March  18,  in  honor  of  the 
anniversary  of  the  Commune. 

2  E.  de  Pressense,  Various  Morales  et  Politiques.    1  vol.    Paris,  1886. 

8  M.  Rouvier  chose  as  his  colleagues  MM.  Falli^res,  SpuUer,  de  Heredia, 
Dautresme,  Barbe,  Mazeau,  Barbey,  and  General  Ferron;  he  kept  the 
portfolio  of  Foreign  Affairs  in  the  hands  of  M.  Flourens. 


THE  CRISIS.  217 

just  been  appointed  to  the  command  of  a  corps,  the 
Patriots'  League,  and  the  newspapers.  La  Lanterne^ 
L^ Intransigeant,  prepared  for  him  a  noisy  ovation ;  the 
railway  station  was  invaded ;  the  general  lent  himself 
complaisantly  to  these  manifestations;  his  portraits 
were  scattered  everywhere  about  in  profusion;  he  in- 
fused ostentation  into  his  most  simple  acts;  at  the 
review  on  July  14,  the  Parisians  practised  shouting, 
"  Long  live  Boulanger !  "  which  was  to  become  the  rally- 
ing-cry  of  all  the  discontented.  At  the  same  time,  cer- 
tain administrative  disorders  of  the  preceding  Cabinet 
were  discovered;  in  the  Navy,  19,000,000  francs  of  ex- 
pense incurred  without  an  appropriation;  in  the  Post 
Office,  thirty-seven  employees  appointed  at  the  last  mo- 
ment, in  defiance  of  all  regulations ;  in  the  department 
of  Commerce,  posts  created  and  salaries  distributed  out 
of  the  funds  of  the  Exposition  of  1889.^  The  radicals 
took  a  great  deal  of  pains  to  make  people  believe  in 
the  existence  of  a  secret  compact  between  the  ministry 
and  the  Right.  In  reality,  there  had  been  nothing  but 
a  laxity  which  was  very  necessary  to  make  the  govern- 
mental wheels  work  well.  Moreover,  the  ministers 
retorted  with  deeds  rather  than  in  words:  by  the  pres- 
entation of  the  budget  of  1888,  which  contained  129,- 
000,000  francs  of  reductions,  and  which  was  regarded  as 
simple  and  luminous;  by  diplomatic  successes  in  Con- 
stantinople, where  the  energetic  instructions  given  to 
M.  de  Montebello  led  to  the  rejection  by  the  Sultan 
of  the  Drummond  Wolf  Convention, ^  in  Madagascar, 
where  the  question  arose  of  the  exequatur  of  the  con- 
suls, and  in  England,  where  negotiations  were  in  pro- 
gress concerning  the  New  Hebrides  and  the  Windward 

1  Andre  Daniel,  I'Ann^e  Politique,  1887. 

2  See  above,  the  chapter  entitled :  "  Tunis  and  Egypt." 


218  THE  EVOLUTION  OF  FRANCE. 

Islands.^  In  short,  the  situation  appeared  to  be  in  a 
way  to  improve,  at  home  as  well  as  abroad;  neither 
the  vote  on  the  three  years'  military  service,  nor  the 
attempt  to  mobilize  an  army  corps,  undertaken  with 
success  by  General  Ferron,^  had  prevented  the  amelio- 
ration of  our  relations  with  Berlin,  so  that  the  inci- 
dent of  Raon-sur-Plaine  was  quickly  adjusted  to  the 
satisfaction  of  France.  And  in  conclusion,  when  the 
municipal  council  of  Paris  invited  the  other  councils 
of  the  communes  of  France  to  send  delegates,  with  a 
view  to  taking  concerted  action  to  organize  the  "  true  " 
centenary  of  1789,  its  decision  was  annulled.  Every- 
where activity,  zeal,  enterprise,  were  exhibited;  men 
witnessed  a  real  governmental  revival ;  it  coincided,  it 
is  true,  with  a  sort  of  recoil  on  the  part  of  the  conserva- 
tives, who  were  worried  lest  things  should  go  too  well 
for  the  ministry,  and  lest  the  Republic  should  profit  by 
them  as  well  as  the  country.^ 

But  an  unforeseen  circumstance  suddenly  changed 
the  aspect  of  things,  and  an  abyss  yawned,  into  which, 
it  might  have  been  thought,  the  Republic  would  pres- 
ently sink.  On  October  7  the  dismissal  of  Brigadier- 
General  Caffarel  called  attention  to  a  traffic  in  crosses 
of  the  Legion  of  Honor,  to  which  many  references  had 
repeatedly  been  made  by  the  newspapers,  without  any 


1  France  recovered  her  liberty  of  action  there,  which  had  been  lost 
through  a  previous  convention. 

2  This  project  was  due  to  the  initiative  of  his  predecessor.  Greneral 
Ferron  also  brought  forward  important  projects  of  law,  completing  the 
6th  division  of  independent  cavalry  which  had  never  been  organized, 
creating  eighteen  new  regiments  of  territorial  infantry,  improving  the 
status  of  re-enlisted  under-oflBcers,  and  so  forth. 

8  The  Comte  de  Paris  chose  this  moment  to  launch  a  manifesto  with 
Caesarian  tendencies.  The  divergence  of  views  among  his  councillors  was 
reflected  in  the  prince's  expression  of  his  thoughts,  as  he,  in  turn,  vaunted 
the  benefits  of  liberty  and  of  despotism. 


THE  CRISIS.  219 

one  attaching  much  importance  to  their  accusations, 
which  were,  for  the  most  part,  anonymous  and  lack- 
ing in  preciseness.  In  the  course  of  a  search  made  at 
the  residence  of  a  certain  woman  named  Limouzin,  who 
had  organized  a  regular  agency  for  the  purpose  of  this 
detestable  traffic,  compromising  letters  were  discovered 
from  M.  Wilson,  the  son-in-law  of  the  President  of  the 
Republic.  The  news  did  not  cause  great  surprise  in 
the  parliamentary  world;  M.  Wilson  had  long  been 
regarded  with  suspicion.  But  among  the  masses  the 
excitement  was  great.  As  usually  happens  in  such 
cases,  revelations  were  multiplied,  were  quick  and 
overwhelming.  The  government  tried  in  vain  to  resist 
the  demand  for  a  parliamentary  investigation  which 
was  presented  by  M.  Cuneo  d'Ornano;  it  was  passed 
by  338  votes  against  230.  A  few  days  later,  a  demand 
for  leave  to  prosecute  M.  Wilson  was  unanimously 
carried. 

Public  opinion  grew  exasperated  when  it  learned 
before  long  that,  while  the  affair  was  under  investiga- 
tion, two  of  M.  Wilson's  letters  had  been  abstracted 
from  the  file,  and  two  others  substituted.^  From  that 
day  forth,  it  was  felt  that  nothing  could  prevent  the 
head  of  the  State  from  being  irreparably  tainted  by  the 
moral  decadence  of  a  member  of  his  family.  Accord- 
ingly, people  began  to  talk  of  his  resignation  in  terms 
which  made  it  next  to  impossible  for  him  not  to  hand  it 
in ;  the  pressure  of  all  the  politicians  was  added  to  that 
of  public  opinion,  but  in  vain.  Then,  for  the  sake  of 
reaching  the  President,  the  ministry  was  overthrown 
(November  19,  1887).  But  M.  Gr^vy  would  not 
understand;  he  busied  himself  with  forming   a  new 

1 M.  Gragnon,  Prefect  of  Police,  who  was  responsible  for  this,  was 
immediately  dismissed  and  replaced  by  M.  L€on  Bourgeois. 


220  THE  EVOLUTION  OF  FRANCE. 

Cabinet.  Meanwhile  popular  agitation  increased;  a 
surge  formed,  like  that  which  on  the  open  sea  precedes 
certain  tempests.  The  situation  presented  some  anal- 
ogy with  that  of  February  23,  1848;  very  fortunately, 
the  Chamber  displayed  composure  and  restraint,  and 
repulsed  the  attacks  upon  parliamentary  liberties  which 
were  proposed  to  it. 

M.  Gr^vy  fought  for  his  power,  step  by  step.  His 
evasions  augmented  the  peril.  At  the  same  time  the 
parties  were  engrossed  with  the  question  of  his  suc- 
cessor, which  was  virtually  open.  The  first  indica- 
tions gave  rise  to  the  idea  that  Jules  Ferry  would  be 
elected,  and  from  that  moment  the  radical  "  leaders  " 
transgressed  all  bounds;  they  wished  to  organize  a 
riot,  and  held  a  conference  with  M.  Deroul^de,  the 
founder  of  the  Patriots'  League,  the  man  who  advo- 
cated revenge  at  any  price,  the  valiant  soldier  and  dis- 
tinguished poet,  who  had  not  received  from  Heaven 
the  gift  of  wisdom  as  his  heritage,  and  whose  pranks 
and  excesses  of  language  came  near,  more  than  once, 
causing  the  country  serious  harm.  Very  unpatrioti- 
cally  certain  men  among  them  even  talked  of  going 
over  to  M.  Gr^vy,  and  retaining  him  in  power  rather 
than  allow  Jules  Ferry  to  attain  to  it.  This  movement 
did  not  escape  the  President,  who  appeared  disposed  to 
take  advantage  of  it,  and,  in  spite  of  reiterated  prom- 
ises, again  put  off  sending  his  letter  of  resignation. 
At  this  news  the  excitement  was  intense;  the  sena- 
tors and  deputies,  with  much  dignity,  contented  them- 
selves, nevertheless,  with  suspending  their  sittings, 
"while  awaiting  the  communication  which  had  been 
announced." 

The  message  came  at  last;  it  concealed  badly  both 
anger  and  resentment,  and  contained  several  phrases 


THE  CRISIS.  221 

which  were  out  of  place  from  the  pen  of  a  President 
who  was  politically  irresponsible.  But  no  one  stopped 
to  weigh  its  phraseology.  Attention  was  concentrated 
upon  the  election  of  the  new  President:  the  numerous 
preparatory  meetings  left  face  to  face,  at  the  opening 
of  Congress,  the  candidacies  of  MM.  Jules  Ferry, 
Floquet,  de  Freycinet,  Brisson,  and  Carnot.  The  first 
ballot  gave  no  result;  in  the  second,  515  republican 
votes  raised  to  the  Presidency  of  the  French  Republic 
the  grandson  of  the  man  who  had  organized  the  victory. 
The  effervescence  immediately  subsided,  and  every  one 
returned  to  his  own  affairs.^  Europe,  which  was  watch- 
ing with  anxiety  the  development  of  a  crisis  that  she 
believed  to  be  big  with  peril  for  France,  beheld  with  a 
sort  of  stupor  this  unexpected  proof  of  the  solidity  and 
elasticity  of  the  republican  constitution.  It  waited 
with  a  curiosity  which  was  shared  by  France  the  acts 
of  the  new  President.  M.  Carnot  was  a  distinguished 
man ;  he  bore  an  illustrious  name ;  he  had  been  a  skil- 
ful and  honest  minister;  but  his  modesty  and  the  very 
nature  of  his  services  had  not  marked  him  out  in  public 
opinion ;  he  was  inferior  in  notoriety  to  his  recent  com- 
petitors ;  what  was  known  of  his  character  disposed  to 
sympathy,  and  the  French  believed  in  him  when  he  said 
to  them,  in  his  presidential  message,  "  All  the  strength 
and  devotion  that  I  possess  belong  to  my  country." 
The  future  was  destined  to  give  to  these  words,  which 
to-day  are  engraved  on  bronze  and  marble,  an  august 
and  bloody  significance. 

The  man  who  passed  out  of  sight,  after  nine  years  of 

1  The  insults  showered  upon  M.  Jules  Ferry  had,  nevertheless,  a 
lamentable  result.  In  the  Chamber  of  Deputies,  a  fanatic  fired  a  shot  at 
him.  The  ball,  by  a  miracle,  was  flattened  against  his  breast;  but  it 
caused  a  rupture,  nevertheless,  which  is  said  to  have  hastened  the  death 
of  the  illustrious  statesman. 


222  THE  EVOLUTION   OF  FRANCE. 

the  Presidency,  had  lost  his  right  to  the  nation's  grati- 
tude. His  eclipse,  which  was  unique,  —  and  every- 
thing inclines  one  to  the  belief  that  such  it  is, —  is  of 
such  a  nature  that  his  memory  will  never  be  completely 
exonerated  from  it.  None  the  less,  M.  Gravy's  Presi- 
dency rendered  considerable  services  to  the  Republic, 
as  much  by  its  duration  as  by  its  pacific  character. 
Later  on  men  learned  on  how  many  occasions  the  mod- 
erating influence  of  the  head  of  the  State  had  been 
exercised  upon  those  who  surrounded  him.  M.  Gr^vy 
possessed  a  very  penetrating  mind,  tact,  and  that  pla- 
cidity which  is  produced  by  a  non-sceptical  conception 
of  the  world.  The  traditions  which  he  succeeded  in 
establishing  around  his  lofty  function  were  easily  modi- 
fied into  a  more  supple,  more  charming,  more  generous 
form.  The  Presidency  now,  at  least,  rose  above  the 
fluctuations  of  parties,  which  had  grown  used  no  longer 
to  drag  it  into  their  quarrels.  This  was  an  immense 
advantage.  M.  Thiers  had  exercised  a  too  personal 
power ;  the  marshal,  although  more  constitutional,  had, 
especially  after  the  16th  of  May,  sown  distrust  around 
the  Elys^e.  M.  Gr^vy  did  not  even  use  all  the  politi- 
cal prerogatives  with  which  the  Constitution  endowed 
him ;  he  seemed  to  desire  to  confine  himself  to  the  part 
of  the  "  Chief  Magistrate "  rather  than  head  of  the 
State.  It  was  this  attitude  which,  by  depriving  the 
enemies  of  the  presidential  office  of  their  complaints 
against  the  institution,  permitted  M.  Carnot,  without 
transgressing  legal  bounds,  to  play,  for  the  greater  good 
of  the  Republic,  a  more  active  and  more  brilliant  part. 

II. 

The  difficulties  at  home,  which  had  been  accumulat- 
ing ever  since  1885,  were  not  smoothed  away  by  the 


THE  CRISIS.  223 

great  change  which  had  taken  place.  The  Chamber 
remained  in  a  state  of  decomposition  and  had  no  power; 
the  voting  went  by  haphazard.  Public  opinion  was  in 
a  stationary  and  languid  condition,  which  showed  itself 
in  the  partial  renewal  of  the  senators  on  January  5, 
1888.  As  for  the  ministry,  formed  without  any  pre- 
cise tokens,  it  had  no  hold  on  Parliament.^ 

As  the  budget  of  1888  was  naturally  behindhand, 
recourse  was  again  had  to  the  monthly  instalments,  and 
again  incoherence  ruled  all  deliberations.  The  plan 
which  M.  Yves  Guyot  reported  raised  the  tax  on  col- 
lateral inheritances  and  on  liquor  licenses ;  this  system 
was  rejected.  The  committee  refused  to  consider  the 
appropriations  for  public  worship,  for  whose  mainten- 
ance, fortunately,  the  Chamber  voted;  but  that  for 
Tonkin  was  pitilessly  refused.  This  anti-patriotic  vote 
led  to  the  resignation  of  the  under-Secretary  of  State 
for  the  Colonies,  M.  Fdlix  Faure,  and  caused  keen 
feeling.  The  Chamber  was  obliged  to  retreat  from  its 
position,  but  instead  of  accepting  the  sum  proposed, 
which  was  20,000,000  francs,  they  reduced  it  to  19,800,- 
000  francs,  and  contented  themselves  with  this  slender 
satisfaction  to  their  self-esteem. 

The  time  was  not  propitious  for  such  pranks.  A 
peril,  upon  which  the  enemies  of  the  Republic  were 
calculating  with  joy,  was  increasing.  On  February  28, 
1888,  various  partial  elections  took  place.  General  Bou- 
langer  obtained,  as  if  by  accident,  12,500  votes  in  Loire, 
11,000  in  Maine-et-Loire,  16,000  in  Marne;  electoral 
placards  had  been  distributed  in  his  name ;  the  journal 
La  Cocarde  had  just  been  set  up, —  with  what  money  no 

1  M.  Tirard,  President  of  the  Council,  had  formed  only  a  working 
Cabinet,  with  MM.  Fallieres,  Floureus,  Sarrien,  de  Mahy,  Faye,  Loubet, 
Viette,  and  General  Logerot. 


224  THE  EVOLUTION  OF  FRANCE. 

one  knew,  but  with  what  intention  every  one  under- 
stood. 

The  distributions  of  emblems,  of  portraits,  and  of 
songs  became  more  abundant  every  day.  Soon  the 
rumor  began  to  circulate  that  General  Boulanger  had 
abandoned  his  post  and  had  come  thrice  to  Paris  with- 
out permission,  but  that,  in  order  to  do  so,  he  had  had 
recourse  to  a  shameful  disguise.  At  first  no  one  would 
believe  it,  so  unworthy  did  such  conduct  appear  on  the 
part  of  a  French  soldier.  But  the  evidence  had  to  be 
accepted.  The  Minister  of  War  put  the  general  on  the 
retired  list  (March,  1888) ,  and  the  latter,  immediately 
throwing  aside  his  mask,  showed  himself  in  Paris  sur- 
rounded by  MM.  Rochefort,  Deroul^de,  Michelin,  Laur, 
Laisant,  Laguerre.  He  stood  in  the  Aisne,  and  re- 
ceived 45,000  votes,  and  a  "Republican  Committee  of 
National  Protest"  was  founded  to  exploit  his  popu- 
larity. 

M.  Tirard  had  announced  that  Boulanger  would  be 
brought  before  a  committee  of  inquiry  composed  of  his 
peers.  The  committee  met  on  March  26,  at  the  Mili- 
tary School,  under  the  presidency  of  General  F^vrier, 
and  unanimously  declared  that  there  had  been  sufficient 
cause  for  placing  Boulanger  on  the  retired  list.  Public 
opinion  did  not  immediately  accept  this  decision ;  a  cry 
of  injustice  was  raised.  Taken  with  the  rest,  this  was 
a  serious  symptom.  The  army,  by  the  voice  of  its  chiefs 
of  most  authority,  proclaimed  that  a  superior  officer  had 
failed  in  his  duties;  it  rejected  him  as  unworthy,  and 
people  hesitated  to  ratify  the  verdict ! 

A  few  days  later,  a  hurried  vote  on  the  revision  of 
the  Constitution,  as  to  which  no  one  seriously  cared 
anything,  overthrew  the  Cabinet.  The  radicals  came 
into  power ;  as  if  by  an  irony  of  fate  they  were  to  follow 


THE  CRISIS.  225 

closely  the  end  of  their  work  of  disintegration  and  ren- 
der evident  their  incapacity  for  government,  to  which 
their  theories,  as  well  as  circumstances,  condemned 
them.i  During  this  time  an  agglomeration  of  political 
adventurers  was  forming  around  the  "Committee  of 
the  Rue  de  Sdze,"  awaiting  favors  and  places,  and  the 
"conservative  youth"  wore  the  red  carnation,  the  em- 
blem of  its  dictatorial  tendencies.  It  was  in  good  taste 
to  be  a  Boulangist;  in  the  drawing-rooms  of  Paris  the 
general  reaped  a  harvest  of  smiles  and  also  —  as  it  was 
discovered  later  on  —  subsidies  for  his  cause.  With 
gaze  impenetrable,  with  the  peaceful  manner  of  a  man 
who  feels  himself  not  inferior  to  his  destiny,  however 
great  it  may  be,  he  moved  easily  in  the  midst  of  the 
most  eccentric  party  that  ever  was  collected  around  a 
politician. 

On  April  8  Boulanger  was  elected  in  Dordogne  by 
59, 500  votes  against  36, 000.  On  April  15,  in  the  Nord, 
he  received  176,000  (among  which  there  were  a  great 
number  from  the  Right).  He  appeared  twice  on  the 
tribune  of  the  Chamber,  then  noisily  resigned,  to  pre- 
sent himself  simultaneously  in  the  Nord,  Charente- 
Inf^rieure,  and  Somme  for  election.  One  hundred  and 
thirty  thousand  votes  in  the  first  of  these  departments, 
57,000  and  77,000  in  the  other  two,  were  again  cast  for 
him.  It  was  now  the  royalist  leaders,  MM.  de  Mackau, 
de  L^vis-Mirepois,  de  Mun,  de  Breteuil,  who  gave  him 

1  M.  Floquet  became  President  of  the  Council,  and  chose  for  his  col- 
leagues MM.  de  Freycinet  (War),  Goblet  (Foreign  Affairs),  Ferrouillat, 
Peytral,  Deluns-Montaud,  Viette,  Lockroy,  Pierre  Legrand,  and  Admiral 
Krantz.  Shortly  before,  the  Russian  ambassador  had,  at  last,  been  au- 
thorized by  his  government  to  maintain  relations  with  the  President  of 
the  Chamber,  who,  from  that  day  forth,  was  regarded  as  of  ministerial 
rank.  It  is  well  known  that,  in  his  youth,  M.  Floquet  had  permitted  him- 
self to  utter  insulting  words  against  the  Tzar  Alexander,  when  that  sov- 
ereign was  passing  through  Paris,  as  the  guest  of  Napoleon  III. 
Q 


226  TBE  EVOLUTION  OF  FRANCE. 

their  support ;  the  clergy  followed.  In  the  conservative 
ranks  only  a  few  rare  independents  expressed  the  indig- 
nation. The  rumor  was  in  circulation  that  the  Comte 
de  Paris  had  joined  hands  with  the  adventurer,  but 
nothing  definite  was  yet  known  on  that  point.  Bou- 
langer  took  good  care  not  to  put  an  end  to  an  equivo- 
cal situation  which  served  his  ambitious  designs.  His 
duel  with  the  President  of  the  Council,  and  the  ridi- 
cule which  attached  to  having  been  wounded, — he,  a 
general,  by  a  lawyer, —  the  strange  staff  with  which 
he  surrounded  himself,  his  solemn  and  empty  mani- 
festoes, —  nothing  seemed  capable  of  lessening  his 
popularity. 

The  situation  abroad  was  disquieting.  In  the  month 
of  March  the  old  German  Emperor  had  died,  leaving 
his  throne  to  his  son,  now  become  Frederick  III.,  and 
the  rescript  addressed  to  Prince  Bismarck  by  the  new 
CsBsar  had  astonished  the  world.  "  While  indifferent  to 
the  brilliancy  of  great  actions  which  bring  glory,"  said 
the  Emperor,  "  I  shall  be  satisfied  if,  later  on,  it  is  said 
of  my  reign  that  it  was  beneficent  for  my  people."  But 
he  who  uttered  these  noble  words  was  himself  at  the 
gates  of  the  tomb.  A  marvellous  effort  of  will  had  kept 
him  up  long  enough  to  assume  the  crown.  Already  his 
strength  was  failing.  A  few  months  later  he  died,  and 
thenceforth  the  fate  of  Europe  lay  partly  in  the  hands 
of  a  young  prince,  of  whom  nothing  was  known  except 
that  he  seemed  to  take  too  much  interest  in  military 
matters,  and  to  live  for  war  alone. 

Not  everything  at  home  was  obscure  and  troubled: 
the  President  of  the  Republic  had  undertaken  a  trip 
through  the  provinces ;  his  affability,  his  kindness,  the 
extremely  correct  manner  in  which  he  filled  his  lofty 
station,  won  all  hearts,  and  the  republicans  with  satis- 


THE  CRISIS.  227 

faction  beheld  this  sterling  popularity  increasing.  As 
for  the  senators,  they  seemed  to  have  escaped  the  de- 
pressing influence  of  their  surroundings ;  they  remained 
calm  and  sensible,  like  genuine  "conscript  fathers, "^ 
Just  then  M.  Floquet  was  preparing  a  plan  for  revising 
the  constitutional  laws,  which  tended  to  nothing  if  not 
to  discredit  the  Senate,  in  anticipation  of  the  time  when 
it  could  be  suppressed.  The  President  of  the  Council 
really  was  not  lucky;  he  understood  no  better  how 
to  appease  social  hatreds  than  to  conciliate  moderate 
public  opinion,  and  spoke  to  all  in  ambiguous  and 
bombastic  language  which  in  no  way  recalled  his  ad- 
dresses, full  of  taste  and  elegance,  as  President  of  the 
Chamber.  Strike  followed  strike,  in  Amiens,  Troyes, 
the  mines  of  the  Loire,  in  Limousin.  It  must  be  con- 
fessed that  never  had  a  head  of  the  government  found 
himself  in  such  an  inextricable  situation.  But  why 
was  he  there  ?  Therein,  precisely,  lay  the  paradoxical 
side  of  the  situation.  The  radicals  themselves  began 
to  understand  that  energetic  concentration  was  the  sole 
anchor  of  safety,  and  that  this  concentration  could  be 
effected  only  on  moderate  grounds.  At  last  the  min- 
istry succumbed,  in  the  course  of  the  debate  over  the 
unlucky  project  of  revision.  It  had  just  lost  the  final 
electoral  battle.  On  January  27  General  Boulanger 
had  been  elected  in  Paris,  by  244,149  votes  (of  which 
between  seventy  and  eighty  thousand  were  from  the 
Right),  against  162,419  given  to  his  opponent.  This 
opponent  was  M.  Jacques,  President  of  the  General 
Council  of  the  Seine.  The  different  fractions  of  the 
republican  party,  by  uniting  upon  him,  had  given  him 
the  right  to  call  himself  the  "  candidate  of  the  Repub- 

1  The  senatorial  electors  themselves  shared  in  the  calmness  of  the 
upper  Assembly,  as  the  partial  elections  in  Eure-et-Loir  prove. 


228  THE  EVOLUTION   OF  FRANCE. 

lic."^  The  check  had  only  the  greater  significance. 
Many  persons  believed  on  the  eve  of  that  memorable 
day  that  the  parliamentary  system  of  1875  had  received 
its  death-blow,  and  that  dictatorship  was  at  the  doors. 
Abroad,  where  the  opinions  of  Parisians  are  gladly  ac- 
cepted as  those  of  all  France,  no  one  doubted  it.  But 
Boulangism  had  a  very  powerful  and  eminently  Pari- 
sian adversary,  which  it  had  not  occurred  to  any  one 
as  necessary  to  take  into  calculation.  It  was  the  Uni- 
versal Exposition  of  1889. 

When  the  government  of  the  French  Republic  an- 
nounced its  intention  to  celebrate  by  a  Universal  Inter- 
national Exposition  the  centenary  of  1789,  this  decision 
caused  embarrassment  in  Europe.  There  could  be  no 
doubt,  in  the  mind  of  any  rational  man,  as  to  the 
legitimacy  of  the  celebration  of  such  an  anniversary. 
Assuredly,  no  one  could  have  understood  how  France, 
even  if  it  had  been  monarchical,  could  abstain  from 
rendering  homage  to  the  great  and  noble  ideas  under 
the  impulse  of  which  a  necessary  and  beneficent  evolu- 
tion had  been  inaugurated,  whose  character  had,  unfort- 
unately, been  transformed  by  the  course  of  events  into 
a  bloody  revolution.  As  early  as  1886  the  German 
Prince  Imperial  (afterwards  Frederick  III.),  when  he 
received  M.  Antonin  Proust  at  Berlin,  lauded  in  his 
presence  the  intention  of  our  government,  which  was 
already  known,  and  spoke  of  1789  as  a  "great  date," 
whose  centenary  was  worthy  of  being  celebrated.^  In 
fact,  the  French  Revolution  long  ago  entered  into  the 
domain  of  history,  and  princes  have  made  peace  with 
its  memory.     As  for  their  peoples,  they  have  not  for- 

1  "  One  does  not  vote  for  a  i>refi3:,"  M.  de  Cassagnac  said.  "  It  is  the 
prefix  of  the  Republic,"  his  adversaries  retorted. 

2  Les  Capitales  du  Monde :  Berlin,  by  M.  Antonin  Proust. 


THE  CBISIS.  229 

gotten  what  they  owe  to  it.  One  might  almost  main- 
tain the  paradox  that  in  this  case  foreign  nations 
ought  to  have  taken  the  first  steps;  the  French  Revo- 
lution is  like  fire;  all  the  world  warms  itself  from 
it;  the  one  who  sets  it  off  is  the  only  one  who  burns 
his  fingers. 

Nevertheless,  Europe  had  not  sufiicient  confidence 
in  our  wisdom  to  feel  quite  sure  as  to  the  manner  in 
which  we  intended  to  celebrate  the  centenary.  She 
was  vaguely  conscious  of  the  "  lump  "  which  M.  Cl^- 
menceau  put  into  words  later  on,  and  wondered  whether 
our  invitation  did  not  expose  it  to  seeing  us  confound 
in  one  and  the  same  outburst  of  patriotic  enthusiasm 
the  5th  of  May  and  the  10th  of  August,  and  celebrate 
the  centenary  of  1793  together  with  that  of  1789. 
When  the  foundations  of  the  buildings  of  the  Champ- 
de-Mars  began  to  rise  above  the  ground,  it  became 
necessary  to  arrive  at  a  decision,  and  the  chancelleries 
held  consultations.  They  almost  unanimously  agreed 
upon  a  very  elastic  formula,  which  consisted  in  accept- 
ing France's  invitation,  while  appearing  to  refuse  it. 
Then  we  beheld  committees  formed  in  the  foreign 
capitals  for  the  purpose  of  securing  the  participation 
of  the  European  monarchies  in  the  Paris  Exposition; 
the  governments  which  had  declined  to  be  officially  rep- 
resented hastened  to  lend  their  countenance  to  these 
committees,  and  thereby  to  show  their  good-will  and 
their  desire  to  aid  in  the  success  of  the  enterprise. 

Thus  they  arranged  for  themselves  a  door  through 
which  they  could  enter  and  emerge  from  the  Champ-de- 
Mars  without  compromising  themselves.  All  would 
depend  upon  the  attitude  of  the  French  government, 
the  language  of  its  representatives  when  the  inaugura- 
tion drew  near.    Moreover,  in  certain  circles  the  impres- 


280  THE  EVOLUTION  OF  FRANCE. 

sion  lingered,  that  in  choosing  the  date  of  1889  the 
Republic  had  desired  to  satisfy  the  demands  of  the 
radicals,  and  that  it  was  resolved  to  find  a  pretext  for 
postponing  the  opening  of  the  Exposition  until  1890, 
thus  separating  it  from  the  centenary  properly  speak- 
ing, which  would  have  smoothed  away  all  difficulties. 
The  Republic  was  not  guilty  of  that  weakness ;  it  un- 
derstood that  the  absence  of  a  few  embroidered  coats 
would  not  deprive  its  Exposition  of  much  brilliancy, 
and  was  philosophical  enough  to  pass  over  the  slight 
wound  to  its  self-esteem  which  these  official  abstentions 
might  cause  it.^ 

On  May  5  the  President  of  the  Republic  betook  him- 
self to  Versailles  with  the  ministers  and  the  great  bodies 
of  the  State.  A  ceremony  stamped  with  simple  dig- 
nity, which  everywhere  produced  the  best  impression, 
took  place  in  the  Gallery  of  Mirrors.  There  they  cele- 
brated, in  moderate  terms,  the  great  memories  evoked 
by  the  centenary.  On  the  following  day,  the  splendors 
enclosed  in  the  Champ-de-Mars  were  thrown  open  to 
the  public.  Those  who,  distantly  or  closel}'',  had  taken 
part  in  the  great  work,  had  let  it  be  understood  that 
the  Exposition  buildings  would  exercise  an  irresistible 
attraction  upon   the   popular  imagination.     But  they 

1  Even  in  France  people  paid  comparatively  little  heed  to  these  ques- 
tions of  forms.  A  very  insignificant  little  group  had  assembled  in  the 
beginning  to  organize  an  "agitation"  against  the  centenary.  After  sev- 
eral debates  around  a  green  table,  the  men  who  composed  it,  finding  no 
echo  in  the  country,  and  forced  to  acknowledge  their  impotence,  separated. 
A  few  devout  persons,  who  quivered  with  anguish  before  the  "modern 
Tower  of  Babel,"  and  a  few  narrow-minded  artists,  who  reproached 
M.  Eiffel  with  "dishonoring  Paris,"  presented  honest  petitions,  which 
were  civilly  buried  in  the  administrative  pigeonholes.  As  for  the 
dilettanti  of  public  opinion,  they  were  all  absorbed  in  the  acts  and  gest- 
ures of  General  Boulanger,  and  the  Exposition  acquired  importance  in 
their  eyes  only  when  they  learned  that  M.  Carnot  would  drive  to  the  inau- 
guration in  an  open  carriage  with  postilions. 


THE  CRISIS.  231 

said  it  under  their  breath,  with  a  remnant  of  uncertainty 
and  a  sort  of  uneasy  hesitation.  When  the  flag  floated 
from  the  Eiffel  Tower,  when  the  scaffoldings  had  disap- 
peared, and  in  the  resplendent  gardens  the  water  began 
to  flow  in  the  fountains,  all  the  world  in  Paris  knew 
that  the  reality  surpassed  the  dream. 

Everything  had  seemed  to  conspire  against  the  Expo- 
sition; everything  now  seemed  to  aid  in  its  success. 
One  festival  followed  another,  without  being  disturbed 
by  a  single  mishap.  A  series  of  scientific,  literary,  and 
artistic  congresses  drew  to  Paris  the  intellectual  flower 
of  the  universe.  The  head  of  the  State  and  his  minis- 
ters, as  well  as  Dr.  Chautemps,  President  of  the  Mu- 
nicipal Council,  exerted  themselves  to  the  utmost  to  do 
the  honors  of  the  capital ;  as  all  their  deeds  and  speeches 
were  distinguished  by  the  most  perfect  tact,  as  order 
was  not  disturbed  in  a  single  instance,  Europe  felt  its 
fears  vanish;  on  the  heels  of  the  Shah  of  Persia  —  an 
unprejudiced  monarch  —  the  King  of  Greece  and  many 
princes  entered  the  Elysde.  The  Lord  Mayor  came  over 
to  represent  England,  and  was  the  guest  of  the  Paris 
municipality  at  the  H8tel  de  Ville.  The  nations  did 
not  cease  to  manifest  their  sympathy;  in  certain  coun- 
tries the  parliaments  by  a  vote  disclaimed  the  attitude 
of  the  sovereign. 

But  of  all  the  solemnities  which  marked  this  happy 
epoch,  none  made  so  deep  an  impression  as  the  recep- 
tion of  foreign  students;  478  foreign  delegates  and  218 
delegates  of  the  Faculties  of  France  assembled  at  Paris 
from  the  2d  to  the  12th  of  August,  1889.  Everywhere, 
in  those  days  of  mirth,  were  seen  "  the  satin  cap  of  the 
University  of  Bologna,  the  felt  hat  of  the  scholars  of 
Padua,  the  long  scarf  of  Geneva  and  Lausanne,  the 
braided    cap   of    Li^ge  and  Brussels,  and  the  silver- 


232  THE  EVOLUTION  OF  FRANCE. 

fringed  cap  of  the  graduates  of  Oxford;  the  divers 
emblems  of  the  Univei-sities  of  Ediuboro',  Lund, 
Upsala,  Copenhagen,  Florence,  Co'imbre;  the  doublet, 
sword,  and  spurred  boots  of  the  students  of  Buda- 
pest."^ They  were  especially  admired  at  the  inaugu- 
ration of  the  new  Sorbonne,  where  all  the  university 
banners  of  the  world  defiled  before  the  President  of  the 
Republic. 

Then  it  was  that  public  opinion  learned  that  France 
possessed  students.  It  learned  many  things,  this  frivo- 
lous and  garrulous  public  opinion,  which  too  often 
judges  monuments  by  their  fa9ades.  For  a  moment  it 
was  astounded,  and  speechless,  as  it  were,  in  the  pres- 
ence of  sympathy  and  praise.  It  asked  itself  whether 
it  were  not  the  plaything  of  a  dream ;  if  this  science, 
this  genius  which  revealed  itself  from  all  quarters, 
these  rising  energies,  these  vast  and  profound  labore 
which  suddenly  came  to  light, —  if  all  this  was  real, 
and  our  own. 

Such  were  the  meaning  and  range  of  the  centennial 
festivals.  Probably  the  men  who  had  been  its  pro- 
moters had  not  foreseen  this.  They  had  thought  it 
useful  to  recall  great  revolutionarj"  memories ;  it  was  a 
hundred  years  of  the  past  which  they  had  intended  to 
set  again  before  the  eyes  of  France.  In  vain  had  the 
men  of  1789  been  cast  in  bronze  to  adorn  the  public 
squares;  in  vain  had  all  which  could  recall  their  ex- 
ploits been  collected  in  museums ;  in  vain  had  it  been 
repeated  in  every  key  that  they  had  found  the  world 
out  of  joint  and  with  a  vigorous  thrust  had  set  it  right 
for  a  series  of  ages, —  all  this  was  said  without  convic- 
tion, as  if  to  acquit  their  consciences,  and  the  throng 

1  The  festivals  of  the  University  of  Paris.  Supplement  to  the  Bulletin 
of  the  General  Association  of  students. 


THE  CRISIS.  233 

did  not  listen.  All  absorbed  with  the  joy  of  resurrec- 
tion, it  compared  present  prosperity  with  the  anguish 
of  the  past ;  it  experienced  that  "  sentiment  of  life  and 
pride  which  Lazarus  must  have  felt  when  he  rose  from 
the  grave."  ^  How  far  away  was  that  unlucky  day  when 
the  French,  vanquished,  despairing,  had  found  them- 
selves face  to  face  with  "a  whole  France  to  be  made 
over!  "^  This  work  had  been  accomplished  in  the  twi- 
light; the  Exposition  suddenly  set  it  forth  in  broad 
daylight. 

So  it  came  to  pass  that,  by  virtue  of  having  tasted  for 
the  space  of  several  months  the  very  great  and  very 
noble  joy  of  commanding  the  attention  of  the  world, 
the  French  citizen  set  to  reading  over  with  care  the 
ballot  which  was  slipped  into  his  hand,  and  when  he 
had  read  it,  he  flung  it  aside  and  took  another.  Cer- 
tain disillusions,  noisy  criticisms,  some  of  which  seemed 
justified,  a  sort  of  uncertainty  and  hesitation  in  the 
management  of  affairs,  had  ended  by  shaking  his  confi- 
dence in  that  republican  staff  which  he  had  long  main- 
tained in  power  against  all  men ;  he  now  felt  that  the 
system  of  government  under  which  this  grand  dis- 
play of  science  and  labor  had  been  prepared  did  not 
deserve  to  be  disowned  on  the  eve  of  victory.  The 
masses  had  felt  this  at  the  mere  sight  of  the  Exposi- 
tion; the  elect,  by  studying  ^details,  arrived  at  the  same 
conclusion.  Both  had  noted  that  barometric  situation 
which  is  called  prosperity.  A  backward  glance  showed 
them  the  road  which  they  had  travelled  in  a  slow  but 
continuous  march,  the  progress  realized  in  almost  all 
the  branches  of  human  activity.  They  regained  confi- 
dence in  the  Republic ;  thus  was  eliminated  the  morbid 

1  E.-M.  de  Vogue,  A  travers  I'Exposition. 

2  E.  Zola,  La  Debacle. 


234  THE  EVOLUTION  OF  FRANCE. 

principle  which  had  given  birth  to  Boulangism.  It  now 
remains  for  us  to  narrate  how  the  bark  which  bore 
Boulanger  and  those  who  had  followed  his  rapid  fortune 
suffered  shipwreck. 

On  the  day  following  that  upon  which  his  election  in 
Paris  had  crowned  the  series  of  his  electoral  triumphs, 
the  general  betook  himself  to  Tours  to  draw  up  the 
platform  of  his  future  government.  He  did  it  in  shady 
and  equivocal  terms  which  made  no  precise  statements, 
and  consequently  bound  him  to  nothing.  He  was  in 
no  great  hurry,  moreover,  to  behold  any  solution  inter- 
posed, and  desired  nothing  so  much  as  that  he  might  be 
able  indefinitely  to  prolong  this  "preface  to  his  reign," 
in  which  he  delighted.  The  struggle  between  him  and 
the  members  of  the  Cabinet  seemed  unequal.  M.  Tirard 
had  again  become  Prime  Minister;  together  with  the 
presidency  of  the  Council  he  had  taken  the  portfolio  of 
Commerce.^  He  was  the  minister  of  the  Exposition; 
it  was  upon  M.  Constans  that  the  part  of  the  general- 
in-chief  of  the  political  forces  devolved ;  his  it  was  to 
choose  his  battle-ground,  to  fortify  his  positions,  to 
regulate  the  attack  for  the  grand  battle  of  the  autumn. 
M.  Constans  was  looked  upon  as  an  energetic  and  skil- 
ful man;  he  showed  himself  equal  to  his  reputation. 
His  first  measures  immediately  conveyed  an  idea  of  the 
conception  which  he  had  of  his  part.  He  hesitated  not 
to  prosecute  the  League  of  Patriots,  ^  nor  to  discourage 

1  The  President  of  the  Republic  had  had  M.  Tirard  summoned  after 
the  failure  of  a  combination  of  Meline,  Ribot,  and  Casimir-Perier.  The 
ministry  comprised  MM.  Spuller  (Foreign  Affairs),  Constans,  Rouvier, 
de  Freycinet,  Fallieres,  Thevenet,  Yves  Guyot,  and  Admiral  Krantz,  who 
died  shortly  after,  and  was  replaced  by  Admiral  Jaures. 

2  Atchinoff,  a  Ck)ssack  adventurer,  disclaimed  by  Russia,  had  installed 
himself  at  Sagallo.  The  neighborhood  of  Abyssinia  rendered  possible 
intervention  on  the  part  of  Italy.  So  Atchinoff  was  ordered  to  withdraw, 
and  refused.    Our  cruisers,  with  a  little  too  much  precipitation,  then  bom- 


JEAN     CASIMIR-P^RIER,     FIFTH     PRESIDENT    OF    THE    REPUBLIC. 


[TJiriVBRSITTi 


THE  CRISIS.  235 

the  labor  agitation  organized  by  the  "syndicates  and 
independent  collective  groups  of  the  Seine,"  nor  to  open 
the  doors  of  France  to  the  Due  d'Aumale,  nor  to  sus- 
pend the  secularization  of  the  asylums  which  had  already 
been  ordered,  nor,  above  all,  to  demand  the  passage  of 
a  law  to  regulate  the  procedure  of  the  Senate  sitting  as 
a  Supreme  Court  of  Justice.  He  caused  some  surprise 
at  first.  Among  those  who  were  most  disquieted  at  the 
spectacle  of  the  progress  of  Boulangism,  many  were 
still  ignorant  of  the  share  of  responsibility  which  Gen- 
eral Boulanger  had  therein,  his  corruption,  his  far- 
reaching  calculations,  his  manoeuvres ;  they  wondered, 
while  they  felt  conscious  of  his  guilt,  how  the  Senate 
would  succeed  in  proving  a  criminality  of  intentions 
alone.  The  unexpected  retirement  of  the  attorney- 
general,  who  refused  to  prosecute  the  accused,  trans- 
formed this  doubt  into  excitement.  With  that  profound 
sense  of  justice  which  is  innate  in  it,  the  French  people 
asked  themselves  whether,  in  order  to  save  the  Repub- 
lic, a  sort  of  deliberate  judicial  error  were  not  about  to 
be  perpetrated.  It  was  Boulanger  himself  who  under- 
took to  reassure  them.  He  took  flight,  with  Rochefort 
and  Comte  Dillon, ^  who  were  implicated,  as  well  as 
himself,  in  the  prosecution.  The  Boulangists  were 
thunderstruck,  and  emphasized  by  their  attitude  the 
accusation  which  their  leader  had  just  furnished  against 

barded  his  encampment ;  five  or  six  men  were  killed.  It  was  an  unfortu- 
nate incident.  The  League  of  Patriots  immediately  opened  a  subscription 
to  indemnify  the  families  of  the  victims,  and  published  a  violent  protest 
against  the  government.  The  league  was  prosecuted,  and  an  inquiry 
revealed  its  secret  organization ;  in  consequence  of  this  discovery,  de- 
mands for  authority  to  prosecute  were  lodged  against  MM.  Naquet,  Tur- 
quet,  Laguerre,  and  Laisant,  deputies,  members  of  the  governing  council. 
1  Boulanger  fled  to  Brussels ;  on  April  24,  at  the  request  of  the  Belgian 
government,  he  left  Belgium  and  went  to  Loudon,  where  he  remained  for  a 
time. 


286  THE  EVOLUTION  OF  FRANCE. 

himself,  and  on  April  4  the  demand  for  authorizing 
the  prosecution  of  Boulanger  was  passed  by  333  votes 
against  199.  On  April  12  the  Supreme  Court  assem- 
bled, and  the  trial  began. 

In  the  republican  party  instinctive  and  absolute 
union  came  about;  the  shades  were  effaced,  good-will 
became  general.  The  deputies  hastened  to  facilitate 
the  passage  of  the  appropriations. 

Moreover,  the  situation  was  good.  The  first  four 
months  of  1889  showed  a  surplus  of  19,000,000  francs 
over  the  income  from  the  indirect  taxes  in  1888,  and 
the  Minister  of  Finance  had  doubled  his  authority  over 
Parliament  by  his  attitude  in  the  affair  of  the  Discount 
Bank.^  District  elections  had  been  re-established,  at 
the  proposal  of  the  preceding  Cabinet ;  a  law  prohibit- 
ing multiple  candidacies  was  passed.  The  republican 
army  had  on  its  flanks  the  new  group  of  the  liberal 
union,  which,  presided  over  by  M.  Barboux,  former 
president  of  the  corporation  of  barristers,  was  joined 
by  conservatives  who  were  hostile  to  the  dictatorship. 
The  monarchist  Right  was  openly  making  the  campaign 
with  the  Boulangists.2  In  the  country,  certain  reac- 
tionaries drew  up,  with  the  aid  of  the  clergy,  the 
"memorials  of  1889,"  in  which  they  summed  up  their 
demands.     As  for  the  Boulangists  themselves,  they  did 


1  The  fall  of  the  Discount  Bank  and  the  suicide  of  its  manager  came 
near  entailing  financial  disasters.  With  remarkable  promptness  and  en- 
ergy, M.  Rouvier  saved  the  market  of  Paris  by  getting  the  Bank  of 
France  and  private  banks  to  advance  the  funds  necessary  to  indemnify 
the  depositors,  the  creditors  of  the  bank. 

2  His  manifesto  was  stamped  with  violence  and  exaggeration ;  together 
with  the  signatures  of  the  Due  de  Doudeauville,  the  Marquis  de  Breteuil, 
MM.  Jolibois,  de  Mackau,  de  Cassagnac,  Leon  Chevreau,  Delafosse,  and 
de  Martimprey,  it  bore  those  of  MM.  de  Mun  and  Jacques  Piou.  The  hesi- 
tation on  the  part  of  their  electors  to  believe  in  the  evolution  which  brought 
them  to  the  Republic  shortly  afterward  will  be  readily  understood. 


THE  CRISIS.  237 

not  seem  to  be  satiated  with  uproar  and  scandal.  Their 
deputies  had  become  regular  commercial  travellers  for 
the  dissemination  of  disorder ;  they  tried  to  get  them- 
selves arrested  in  the  electoral  meetings  and  to  get 
themselves  expelled  from  the  sittings  of  the  Chamber, 
because  they  looked  upon  this  as  an  excellent  advertise- 
ment.^ The  departmental  elections  for  the  renewal  of 
half  the  General  Councils  dealt  them  their  first  blow. 
Boulanger,  by  a  manifesto  in  imperial  style,  set  him- 
self up  as  a  candidate  in  80  cantons,  selected  with  great 
care  out  of  the  1439  which  were  electing  general  coun- 
cillors. He  was  elected  only  twelve  times,  and  after 
balloting  it  was  perceived  that  the  republicans  retained 
the  majority  in  74  councils  out  of  90.  The  trial  before 
the  Supreme  Court  dragged  on  slowly.  The  senatorial 
Right,  after  having  declared  itself  incompetent,  retired ; 
but  when  Attorney-General  Quesnay  de  Beaurepaire's 
charge  to  the  jury  became  known,  there  was  no  longer 
any  doubt  as  to  Boulanger's  condemnation,  and  every 
one  understood  his  haste  to  put  the  frontier  between  his 
judges  and  himself.  The  speech  would  certainly  have 
gained  much  had  it  been  briefer;  and  had  it  contained 
only  convincing  and  proved  facts :  some  of  them  were 
insufficiently  attested.  But  the  crime  against  the 
Republic  stood  out  from  the  collection  of  testimony 
presented  with  such  clearness  that  it  was  impossible  to 

deny  it,  if  one  had  the  least  straightforwardness. 

• 

1  The  sittings  of  June  22, 25,  27,  29,  and  of  July  3  were  reckoned  among 
the  most  uproarious  and  the  most  indecent.  In  order  to  give  an  idea  of 
the  pitch  to  which  the  marks  of  violence  rose,  we  may  quote  the  words  of 
M.  Laisant,  uttered  in  the  course  of  a  political  meeting,  and  which  resulted 
in  their  author  being  brought  before  a  court-martial,  as  head  of  the  terri- 
torial army,  and  dismissed  from  the  service :  "  If  war  weredeclared,  I  would 
not  take  up  my  post  facing  the  enemy,  because  I  know  that  I  should  have 
behind  me  men  like  Constans  and  The'venet.  .  .  .  Who  knows  if  they 
will  not,  one  of  these  days,  hand  their  country  over  to  foreigners!  " 


238  THE  EVOLUTION   OF  FRANCE. 

The  elections  took  place  on  September  22  and  Octo- 
ber 6,  1889;  the  first  ballot  gave  300  results:  230 
republicans,  86  royalists,  52  Bonapartists,  and  22  Bou- 
langists  were  elected.  At  the  second  ballot,  thanks  to 
their  discipline,  the  republicans  got  in  129  of  their 
men  against  51  reactionaries.  Thus  the  Chamber  con- 
sisted of  359  republicans  and  211  reactionaries.  The 
desertion  which  took  place  from  the  ranks  of  the  latter 
was  more  accentuated,  beginning  with  the  day  after  the 
elections,  both  by  the  strangeness  of  their  alliance  and 
the  importance  of  their  defeat.  These  friends  of  a  da}-, 
between  whom  no  bonds  existed,  unless  those  of  ambi- 
tion and  rancor,  parted  cursing  each  other.  Each  party 
threw  upon  the  other  the  responsibility  for  their  bank- 
ruptcy. Boulanger  installed  himself  at  Jersey,  aban- 
doned and  disgraced.  He  departed  from  history  through 
the  back  door;  he  was  to  quit  life,  two  years  later,  in 
the  fashion  of  a  hero  of  romance,  after  having  given 
proof  of  incapacity  for  which  he  will  be  pardoned,  and 
committed  against  patriotism  a  crime  for  which  no 
amnesty  exists.^ 

1  The  settlement  of  the  affairs  of  "  the  great  national  party  "  continued 
to  furnish  food  for  the  public  press.  There  were  scandals,  revelations, 
duels.  At  Paris,  on  April  27, 1890,  at  the  time  of  the  municipal  elections, 
the  Boulangists,  who  were,  at  that  time,  facing  towards  the  radical  Left, 
made  a  last  effort.  They  only  succeeded  in  getting  two  of  their  men  nomi- 
nated against  65  republicans,  and  13  conservatives.  In  the  Chamber,  when 
the  certificates  of  election  were  verified,  23  reactionaries  or  Boulangists 
were  invalidated ;  only  11  were  re-elected. 


THE  TRIUMPH  OF  THE  REPUBLIC.  239 


CHAPTER  IX. 

THE  TRIUMPH  OF  THE  REPUBLIC. 

The  Workingmen's  Congress  in  Berlin.  —  The  Empress  Frederick  in  Paris. 
—  Cronstadt.  —  A  "Novel  Situation."  —  The  General  Tariff  of  the 
Custom-Houses.  —  The  Monarchists'  "Last  Card."— False  Calcula- 
tion.—  Financial  Ways. — The  Elections  of  1893.  —  Minister  Casimir- 
P^rier.  —  The  Russian  Fleet  at  Toulon.  —  National  Mourning. 

It  was  easy  to  foresee  that  the  electoral  victory  won 
by  the  Republic  under  decisive  circumstances  would 
have  numerous  effects;  but  it  may  be  said  that  all  ex- 
pectations were  inferior  to  the  reality.  It  was  the  two 
most  conservative  powers  of  the  universe  —  the  Mus- 
covite Autocracy  and  Pontifical  Csesarism  —  who  were 
the  first  to  bow  before  it  and  seek  its  alliance.  Such 
an  important  event  re-echoed,  necessarily,  at  home ;  the 
result  was  the  annihilation  or  the  disabling  of  the 
unconstitutional  parties,  from  which  the  Church  with- 
drew her  support.  From  the  very  first  moment  it  was 
plain,  through  several  moderated  votes  of  the  conserva- 
tive deputies,  and  through  their  attitude  towards  the 
visit  of  the  head  of  the  State,  who  continued  to  journey 
about  France,  everywhere  received  with  open  arms  and 
with  acclamation,  that  the  time  for  thoughtless  ultra- 
views  was  passed.  But  they  would  not  have  abandoned 
their  preferences,  no  doubt,  and  would  have  left  to  the 
next  generation  the  task  of  forming  a  regular  republican 
Right,  if  the  initiative  of  the  Holy  See  had  not  turned 
away  from  them  a  great  many  Roman  Catholic  electors. 


240  THE  EVOLUTION  OF  FRANCE. 

We  shall  have  occasion  to  study  this  great  movement,  ^ 
which,  by  common  consent,  is  accepted  as  the  starting- 
point  for  the  speech  addressed  in  1890  by  Cardinal 
Lavigerie  to  the  officers  of  the  French  squadron. 

Another  result  of  the  republican  victory  was  to  assure, 
at  last,  that  stability  to  the  ministry  which  had  been 
attained  only  by  Jules  Ferry,  from  1883  to  1885,  and 
the  secret  of  which  seemed  to  have  been  immediately 
lost.  M.  de  Freycinet,  who  assumed  the  presidency 
of  the  Council  at  the  beginning  of  1890,  and  kept  it  for 
two  years,  had  already  been  at  the  head  of  the  Ministry 
of  War  since  the  month  of  April,  1888. ^  He  had  been 
received  there  with  mistrust.  Many  persons  could  not 
easily  reconcile  themselves  to  see  a  civilian  minister  at 
the  head  of  the  army ;  on  the  other  hand  they  recalled 
the  very  unsatisfactory  manner  in  which,  on  various 
occasions,  he  had  guided  the  diplomatic  interests  of 
France.  But  this  time  a  new  man  was  revealed  in  him ; 
completely  devoted  to  the  professional  interests  in  his 
charge,  he  surrounded  himself  with  the  most  authori- 
tative councillors,^  and  carried  on  with  coherence  and 
method  a  work  of  great  magnitude.  It  does  not  enter 
within  the  scope  of  this  study  to  estimate  the  technical 
value  of  that  work,  but  it  must  be  noted  that,  if  M.  de 


1  See  Chapter  X. :  "  The  Republic  and  the  Church." 

2  M.  Tirard,  who  was  seeking  an  occasion  to  resign,  took  as  his  pretext 
a  hostile  vote  of  the  Senate  connected  with  the  expiration  of  the  treaty  of 
Commerce  of  1861,  between  France  and  Turkey.  M.  de  Freycinet  formed 
the  new  Cabinet,  with  MM.  Rouvier,  Barbey,  Yves  Guyot,  who  retained 
the  portfolios  of  Finance,  Navy,  and  Public  Works,  Leon  Bourgeois  (Public 
Education),  Ribot  (Foreign  Affairs),  Develle  (Agriculture),  Jules  Roche 
(Commerce),  and  Fallieres  (Justice).  M.  de  Freycinet  retained  his  port- 
folio under  the  ministries  of  Loubet  and  Ribot ;  he  remained  for  five 
years  (from  1888  to  1893)  at  the  head  of  the  department  of  War. 

8  Shortly  after  the  advent  of  Minister  Freycinet,  General  de  Miribel 
became  head  of  the  general  staff  of  the  armj*. 


THE  TRIUMPH  OF  THE  REPUBLIC.  241 

Freycinet's  ^  administration  aroused  criticism,  it  found 
in  the  army  itself  its  warmest  advocates. 

It  was  the  first  time  in  many  years  that  the  presi- 
dency of  the  Council  had  been  combined  with  the  port- 
folio of  War;  Europe  did  not  take  alarm  thereat;  it 
understood  wonderfully  well  that  the  peace  party  had 
just  triumphed  in  France,  and  that  the  prosperity  of 
the  Republic  constituted  henceforth  one  of  the  guaran- 
tees of  general  tranquillity.  She  saw  at  the  same  time, 
with  pleased  surprise,  that  if  military  matters  were 
maintained  in  Germany  in  the  first  rank  of  imperial 
interests,  William  II.  had  neither  said  nor  done  any- 
thing which  would  permit  of  one's  attributing  to  him 
warlike  ulterior  designs ;  quite  on  the  contrary,  he  ex- 
hibited an  unexpected  solicitude  for  the  laboring 
classes.  The  famous  rescripts  of  February  4,  1890, 
consecrated  in  a  certain  way  the  importance  and  the 
urgency  of  the  labor  question,  and  in  order  the  better 
to  prepare  for  its  solution,  convoked  in  Berlin  an  inter- 
national conference.  France,  on  being  invited  to  take 
part  therein,  replied  by  an  acceptance  couched  in  wise 
and  dignified  terms,  and  stamped  with  the  prudent 
reserve  which  was  dictated  from  the  political  as  well 
as  from  the  moral  point  of  view.^ 

The  debates  were  extended  and  serious ;  the  partici- 
pants labored  honestly  and  discreetly.  But,  judging 
from  the  manner  in  which,  shortly  afterward,  the 
Emperor  wheeled  about,  abandoned  the  "labor  policy," 
and  declared  war  on  the  socialists,  it  seemed  as  if  he 

1  At  the  review  of  Poitiers,  which  terminated  the  grand  manoeuvres  of 
1892,  General  de  Cools,  in  a  burst  of  enthusiasm,  proclaimed  M.  de  Frey- 
cinet  "the  great  statesman,  the  great  citizen  who  has  devoted  all  his 
efforts  and  all  his  life  to  the  reconstitution  of  the  national  army." 

2  France  sent  five  delegates,  among  whom  were  MM.  Jules  Simon  and 
Burdeau. 


242  THE  EVOLUTION   OF  FRANCE. 

had  convoked  the  Conference  of  Berlin  less  through 
interest  for  the  toilers  than  for  the  sake  of  emphasizing 
the  difference  between  his  policy  and  that  of  Prince 
Bismarck,  for  the  purpose  of  astonishing  the  world,  or 
to  pave  the  way  for  reconciliation  with  France.  What 
gave  some  color  to  this  last  supposition  is  that,  less 
than  a  year  after  the  Conference  of  Berlin,  in  the  month 
of  February,  1891,  the  Empress  Victoria,  widow  of 
Frederick  III.,  arrived  in  Paris  semi-incognita.  The 
avowed  object  of  her  journey  was  to  invite  the  French 
painters  to  take  part  in  the  Exposition  of  Berlin,  but 
men  agreed  in  interpreting  this  as  an  advance  made  to 
the  French  Republic  by  William  11.^ 

It  was  a  decisive  moment;  the  policy  of  reserve  ceased 
to  be  possible,  the  hour  had  come  to  make  up  our  minds. 
For  the  last  time  the  Republic  found  itself  free  to  choose 
between  three  eventualities,  which  had  been  outlined, 
one  may  say,  as  early  as  the  termination  of  the  war  of 
1870 :  a  relaxation  of  enmity  towards  Germany,  an  un- 
derstanding with  England,  the  alliance  with  Russia. 
The  Emperor  William  made  a  mistake  in  exposing  him- 
self, according  to  the  expression  which  is  attributed  to 

1  It  is  almost  certain  that  M.  Herbette,  ambassador  of  France,  only 
with  difficulty  and  at  the  last  moment  obtained  information  of  the  pro- 
ject conceived  by  the  young  Emperor,  a  project  which  had  immediately 
captivated  the  noble  and  generous  character  of  his  mother.  The  sover- 
eign arrived  incognita,  but  she  stayed  at  the  German  Embassy,  whence 
Count  Munster  soon  sent  out  invitations  which  bore  the  note :  "  To  have 
the  honor  of  meeting  Her  Majesty  the  Empress  Frederick."  Thence- 
forth, it  was  difficult  to  maintain  the  complete  incognito,  and  a  call  from 
M.  Carnot  became  imperative.  The  Empress  understood  this,  and,  anxious 
to  make  things  easy,  she  gave  notice  at  the  Quai  d'Orsay  that,  if  the  head 
of  the  State  would  leave  his  card  upon  her  the  next  day,  he  would  not 
find  her  at  home,  and  that  she  would  then  call  upon  Mme.  Carnot.  This 
procedure  was  novel,  and  as  ingenious  as  it  was  incorrect.  Was  the  proto- 
col drawn  up,  or  did  the  attitude  of  the  ex-Boulangists,  of  M.  Deroulede 
and  his  disciples,  inspire  alarm  in  the  government?  At  all  events,  it  was 
thought  best  to  regard  the  incognito  as  complete. 


THE  TRIUMPH  OF  THE  REPUBLIC.  243 

him,  to  the  risk  that  the  French  would  not  return  "  the 
bow  which  he  made  to  them. "  If  the  Empress  Frederick 
had  wished  to  make  a  simple  sojourn  of  pleasure  in 
Paris,  1  her  visits  to  the  artists,  her  strolls  through  our 
museums,  would  have  been  watched  by  the  public  with 
nothing  but  the  kindly  sympathy  prompted  by  the  char- 
acter of  the  sovereign,  by  her  mourning,  her  well-known 
sentiments,  and  the  memory  of  her  noble  husband.  But 
people  believed  they  could  feel  that  her  mission  was  to 
try  to  efface  the  past  and  to  pledge  the  future.  If  Will- 
iam II.  was  well  inspired  in  choosing  his  mother  for 
the  messenger  of  peace,  he  had  perhaps  given  his  mes- 
sage a  too  precise  and  pressing  form,  which  was  bound 
of  necessity  to  awaken  painful  memories,  to  reopen 
wounds  badly  healed.  The  occasion  was  such  a  fine 
one  for  the  professors  of  false  patriotism  and  the  ring- 
leaders of  the  populace,  that  for  a  long  moment  anxiety 
reigned.  The  very  imminence  of  the  peril,  the  exact 
knowledge  that  the  slightest  caprice  would  unchain  the 
dogs  of  war,  and  the  fear  of  the  terrible  responsibility 
which  would  result  therefrom  for  them,  restrained  their 
zeal.  The  Empress  quitted  Paris  without  accident. 
The  artists  considered  themselves  authorized  to  with- 
draw their  promise,  and  to  decline  an  invitation  which 
contained  nothing  flattering  for  the  national  self-esteem. 
Throughout  Europe  there  was  astonishment  and  dis- 
pleasure at  this  fit  of  unseasonable  nervousness.  A 
representative  of  Marshal  MacMahon  had  previously 
been  seen  to  salute  Emperor  William  I.  at  Metz,  and 
later  on  a  French  military  mission,  under  the  lead  of 


1  The  German  ambassador  committed  the  imprudence,  while  taking  the 
sovereign  to  visit  the  palace  of  Versailles,  of  making  her  traverse  the 
park  of  Saint-Cloud,  where  the  burned  ruins  of  the  chateau  still  existed. 
Public  opinion,  already  nervous,  took  offence  at  this. 


244  THE  EVOLUTION  OF  FRANCE, 

General  Billot,  had  been  seen  to  march  behind  his 
cofl&n,  when  it  would  have  been  such  an  easy  matter 
not  to  send  any  one  to  Metz,  and  to  have  ourselves  rep- 
resented at  the  imperial  funeral  by  a  civil  delegation. 
The  cool  reception  given  to  the  Empress  Frederick 
seemed  as  inexcusable  as  the  insult  dealt  to  the  King 
of  Spain  on  his  return  from  Berlin  in  1885. 

The  chancelleries  took  careful  note  of  the  only  inter- 
esting consequence  of  this  awkward  incident ;  every 
system  of  relaxing  enmity  between  France  and  Ger- 
many had  become  impossible ;  France  showed  her  de- 
sire to  remain  isolated,  rather  than  not  find,  in  a  firm 
and  fraternal  alliance  with  another  nation,  the  equiva- 
lent of  what  she  herself  could  give.  England  and 
Russia  remained  to  aspire  to  this  alliance.  They 
had  been  much  impressed  in  England  by  the  defeat  of 
Boulangism,  the  success  of  the  Exposition,  and  the  re- 
sults of  our  colonial  policy.  The  English  press  was 
unanimous  in  its  expression  of  sentiments  of  admira- 
tion. "  The  national  energies  of  France  are  awakening 
to  new  life,  and  the  simultaneous  development  of  its 
activity  from  the  intellectual,  the  material,  and  the 
moral  point  of  view  is  visible,"  said  the  Daily  News; 
"  the  work  of  the  Republic  will  have  been  great ;  it  has 
accomplished  marvels  for  the  country."  The  English, 
practical  people,  were  particularly  sensible  to  the  finan- 
cial service  which  we  rendered  them  in  the  beginning 
of  1891,  by  that  loan  of  75,000,000  francs  in  gold 
advanced  from  the  Bank  of  France  to  the  Bank  of 
England   after   the   ruin   of  the   Argentine   finances.^ 

1  This  act  of  capitalistic  internationalism  did  not  displease  the  so- 
cialists; it  emphasized  the  solidaiuty  of  the  "bourgeois,"  and  rendered 
legitimate  that  of  the  proletariats.  When  questioned  on  this  subject, 
M.  Laur,  Minister  of  Finance,  was  approved  by  419  votes  against  29. 
M.  Rouvier  had  all  the  necessary  authority  to  exercise  such  a  policy; 


THE  TRIUMPH  OF  THE  REPUBLIC.  245 

Long  before  it  was  known  what  the  French  fleet  was 
to  do  at  Cronstadt  in  that  same  year  of  1891,  negotia- 
tions had  taken  place  between  the  French  Embassy  in 
London  and  the  British  government  on  the  subject  of 
a  "pledge  of  friendship,"  which  England  desired  to 
give  to  her  "powerful  neighbor."  The  Queen,  who 
had  acquired  the  habit  of  coming  nearly  every  year  to 
pass  a  few  weeks  during  the  winter  in  the  south  of 
France,  and  met  there  with  the  warmest  welcome,  de- 
sired to  express  her  gratitude.  It  was  then  decided 
that  the  French  fleet,  commanded  by  Admiral  Gervais, 
after  having  visited  Stockholm,  should  go  to  Ports- 
mouth. ^  Under  any  other  circumstances,  the  recep- 
tion which  was  given  to  our  sailors  in  Sweden  and 
England  would  have  passed  for  very  warm ;  but  the  ef- 
fect was  effaced  by  the  explosion  of  enthusiasm  and  the 
tremendous  manifestation  which  rendered  the  meeting  a-t 
Cronstadt  the  point  of  departure,  for  France,  of  a  new  era. 
On  the  morrow  of  the  day  when  William  II.  was 
rejoicing  at  being  able  to  proclaim  the  renewal  of  the 
Triple  Alliance,  the  Franco-Russian  understanding  was 

with  him  surpluses  had  reappeared  in  our  budgets.  The  quotations  on 
the  Exchange  demonstrated  the  excellence  of  the  public  credit.  Thus,  for 
the  issue  of  bonds  bearing  perpetual  interest  at  three  per  cent,  on  Janu- 
ary 10, 1891,  the  State,  which  asked  for  869,000  francs,  was  offered  fourteen 
milliards  and  a  half. 

1  The  negotiation  was  brought  to  definite  terms  during  the  stay  in 
England  of  the  Emperor  William.  His  almost  triumphal  entry  into 
London,  his  attitude  at  Guildhall,  the  rumors  of  England's  accession  to 
the  Triple  Alliance,  displeased  moderate  public  opinion.  M.  Waddington 
cleverly  allowed  a  shadow  of  this  to  be  seen,  and  the  invitation  was  sent 
to  the  French  squadron.  Our  vessels  were  already  at  sea,  and  soon  the 
news  of  Cronstadt  reached  Paris.  The  ministry  found  itself  in  great  per- 
plexity; the  English  invitation  could  not  be  refused,  and,  on  the  other 
hand,  it  was  feared  that  the  full  scope  of  the  Cronstadt  festivities  would 
be  weakened  if  they  were  given  a  sequel,  and,  above  all,  in  British  waters. 
The  tact  and  dignity  of  Admiral  Gervais  and  of  his  officers  triumphed 
over  the  difficulties  of  the  situation. 


246  THE  EVOLUTION  OF  FRANCE. 

suddenly  sealed,  with  a  simplicity  and  a  spontaneity 
which  showed  to  what  a  point  the  sympathies  and 
interests  of  the  two  peoples  were  in  accord.  A  single 
obstacle  had  prevented  the  Tzar  from  bringing  about 
this  understanding  earlier  in  the  day,  —  his  uncertainty 
as  to  the  governmental  future  of  France.  Now  the 
Republic  had  been  put  to  the  proof;  it  put  itself  for- 
ward with  all  the  marks  of  a  definitive  government ;  it 
had  become  possible  to  enter  into  closer  bonds.  This 
was  felt  to  be  realized  when  the  acclamations  of  the 
Russian  nation  had  been  sanctioned  by  official  demon- 
strations and  by  an  interchange  of  significant  telegrams 
between  the  Emperor  and  the  President  of  the  Republic. 
The  effect  produced  in  France  was  great.  It  was 
peace  afterward  as  before ;  but  instead  of  a  peace  forced, 
and  therefore  hard  to  bear,  it  was  to  be  henceforth  de- 
liberate peace,  freely  agreed  to.  This  change  ought 
to  be  enough,  according  to  M.  de  Blowitz's  expression, 
"to  restore  the  national  good  humor."  On  the  occasion 
of  the  grand  manoeuvres  of  the  East,  which  for  the  first 
time  brought  together  four  army  corps,  M.  de  Freycinet 
spoke,  in  his  capacity  of  head  of  the  government,  of  the 
" new  situation"  made  for  the  country.  There  certainly 
was  something  new  in  Europe.  It  was  this, — that 
France  had  taken  her  place  in  it  again.  Our  enthusi- 
asm somewhat  overstepped  the  projDer  limits ;  the  chords 
of  the  Russian  Hymn  were  mingled  with  all  sorts  of 
festivities,  even  those  the  most  foreign  to  politics,^  and 
there  was  sentimentality  in  the  eagerness  with  which 
the  Russian  loan  was  taken  up  in  the  month  of  October, 


1  Many  Greneral  Councils  honored  themselves  by  addressing  to  the 
President  of  the  Republic  a  respect  which  was  well  deserved  for  his  part 
in  the  conclusion  of  the  Franco-Russian  understanding.  The  conserva- 
tives joined  in  it. 


TEE  TRIUMPH  OF  THE  BEPUBLIC.  247 

1891;  some  sceptical  persons  called  attention  to  the 
fact  that  Russia  was  rather  prompt  in  claiming  the 
price  of  her  good  offices,  but  the  sojourn  in  Paris  of 
the  Chancellor  of  the  Empire,  M.  de  Giers,  and  of  the 
Grand  Dukes  Alexis  and  Vladimir,  proved  that,  the 
loan  once  taken,  she  did  not  intend  to  go  back  on  her 
pledged  word. 

The  year  1891,  which  beheld  a  political  alliance  sub- 
stituted for  the  isolation  of  France,  beheld,  by  a  keen 
contrast,  France  substitute  an  almost  complete  economi- 
cal revolution  for  the  system  of  commercial  treaties. 
This  was  the  work  of  M.  M^line,  deputy  for  the  Vosges, 
former  minister.  President  of  the  Chamber,  a  man  of 
incontestable  talent  and  of  rare  strength  of  will.  With 
a  gentle  perseverance  which  nothing  wearied,  he  had 
endeavored  to  obtain  the  formation  of  a  protectionist 
majority  and  the  establishment  of  that  general  custom- 
house tariff  at  which  the  Chambers  had  been  working 
during  the  year  1891,  and  which  went  into  force  on 
February  1,  1892.  The  movement  dated  from  afar. 
The  law  on  sugars,  passed  in  1884,  which  raised  the 
duties  that  had  been  lowered  in  1880,  had  been,  in  a 
certain  way,  the  first  protective  law.  It  favored  the 
sugar  industry,  and  changed  the  basis  of  the  tax,  caus- 
ing it  to  fall  no  longer  on  the  manufactured  products 
but  on  the  beet-root,  whence  came  a  profit  arising  from 
the  difference  between  the  legal  presumption  as  to  the 
yield  of  the  beet-root  and  its  actual  yield.  Moreover, 
it  established  for  two  years  an  additional  tax  of  seven 
francs  on  all  foreign  sugars.  This  extra  tax  was  re- 
moved in  1886.  In  the  interval  taxes  had  been  estab- 
lished equally  (1885)  upon  foreign  cereals.  M.  M^line 
took  a  great  deal  of  trouble  to  convert  his  colleagues  of 


248  THE  EVOLUTION   OF  FRANCE. 

the  Ferry  Cabinet  to  his  doctrines ;  the  latter  had  con- 
sented to  propose  raising  the  import  duties  on  cattle, 
but  had  refused  to  do  as  much  for  cereals.  It  was 
parliamentary  initiative  which  assumed  the  responsi- 
bility of  this,  and  immediately  a  majority  presented 
itself  which  the  Cabinet  no  longer  tried  to  resist.  The 
duty  of  three  francs  was  passed. 

In  the  following  year,  although  the  duties  of  1885 
had  already  brought  about  a  diminution  of  two-thirds 
in  the  importations,  the  protectionists  wished  to  go 
further.  Beaten  at  first,  by  a  weak  majority,  they  took 
their  revenge  by  causing  the  rejection  of  the  convention 
with  Italy,  which  the  government  proposed  to  substi- 
tute for  the  Navigation  Treaty  of  1862,  that  had  expired. 
In  1887  a  raise  of  five  francs  was  voted,  then  an  addi- 
tional duty  on  cattle.  All  these  concessions  were  not 
obtained  without  battles.  Numerous  were  the  objec- 
tions and  hesitations,  even  among  the  ministers,  who 
were  resigned,  by  the  fact  of  their  presence  in  the  gov- 
ernment, to  feel  the  influence  of  the  consequences  of  the 
protectionist  current,  which  kept  on  gaining  strength. 

Many  deputies  had  received  from  their  electors  a  sort 
of  imperative  order,  and  the  votes  bore  witness  to  it; 
they  differed  from  ordinary  votes,  and  the  interests  of 
the  department  took  precedence  over  those  of  party. 
The  duty  of  five  francs  was  decided  by  forty-three 
departments  against  twenty-two.  There  were  only 
twenty-five  whose  representatives  were  divided  on  this 
important  debate. 

The  year  1888  was  a  year  of  economical  re-birth ;  the 
vineyards  were  in  great  measure  restored,  many  foreign 
markets  were  reconquered  by  French  commerce,  and  a 
great  improvement  was  noted  in  the  yield  of  the  taxes. 
Nevertheless,  the  import  duties  were  raised  on  corn. 


THE  TRIUMPH  OF  THE,  REPUBLIC.  249 

then  on  ground  rye  and  on  rye  flour.  At  the  begin- 
ning of  1890  M.  M^line  ^  was  able  to  found  an  "agrarian 
group  "  in  the  Chamber.  Our  treaties  of  commerce  were 
on  the  eve  of  expiring;  it  was  understood  that  they 
were  not  to  be  renewed,  at  least  not  on  the  same  basis. 
They  were  denounced,  and  the  labor  connected  with 
the  preparation  of  a  general  custom-house  tariff  was 
begun.  Inquiries  were  made  of  the  councils,  commit- 
tees, chambers,  and  syndicates;  the  results  were  col- 
lated, and  summed  up  by  the  supreme  councils  of 
Commerce  and  Agriculture.  The  Chambers  insisted 
on  the  necessity  of  concluding  new  treaties.  We  had 
two  milliards'  worth  of  importations  of  raw  materials, 
they  said,  against  600,000,000  francs'  worth  of  corre- 
sponding exportations.  On  the  other  hand,  we  sell 
1,700,000,000  francs'  worth  of  manufactured  articles 
against  600,000,000  francs'  worth  of  purchases.  What 
would  become  of  us  without  treaties  ? 

A  law  was  passed  subjecting  raisins  to  the  same  rule 
as  wines,  augmenting  the  import  duties  on  corn,  rice, 
and  millet,  but  finally  an  abatement  was  admitted  of 
the  duties  on  Tunisian  products,  in  spite  of  the  oppo- 
sitions of  the  representatives  of  Algeria.  It  was  not 
in  France  alone  that  the  tide  of  protection  was  rising. 
The  United  States  had  adopted  the  McKinley  Bill, 
which  was  equivalent,  so  far  as  the  formalities  with 
which  importation  was  surrounded,  ^  to  complete  prohi- 
bition. On  March  10,  1891,  a  new  law  modified,  for 
the  tenth  time  in  seven  years,   the  system  governing 

1  M.  Meline  had  occupied  the  President's  chair,  at  the  Palais-Bourbon, 
for  the  spS,ce  of  the  Floquet  ministry.  He  has  since  become  President  of 
the  Council  of  Ministers. 

2  The  principal  clauses  of  the  McKinley  Bill  had  reference  to  the  presen- 
tation of  authentic  invoices  and  certificates,  as  to  the  origin  of  the  products ; 
disputes  were  to  be  carried  before  an  exclusively  American  tribunal. 


250  THE  EVOLUTION  OF  FRANCE. 

sugars.  Nevertheless,  Switzerland  and  Belgium  had 
replied  to  our  denunciations  of  treaty  by  denouncing 
in  their  turn  every  sort  of  treaty  which  united  them  to 
France,  and  even  the  conventions  which  regulated  navi- 
gation and  artistic  and  literary  property.  Some  annoy- 
ance was  felt  by  M.  Meline's  close  friends.  Certain  of 
these  persons  had  been  so  simple  as  to  believe  that  they 
could  shut  themselves  up  in  the  fortified  stronghold  of 
protection  without  exposing  themselves  to  reprisals  on 
the  part  of  other  countries. 

When  general  discussion  came  on,  the  government 
showed  itself  disposed  to  consider  the  two  tariffs  "  as 
the  basis  of  commercial  relations  to  be  established 
between  France  and  foreign  powers:  the  minimum 
tariff  for  those  who  would  make  certain  concessions, 
and  the  general  tariff  for  those  nations  which  would 
not  consent  to  any."^  But  it  did  not  wish  to  engage 
itself  not  to  make  treaty  below  the  minimum  tariff. 
The  first  part  of  the  debate  ended  according  to  the 
wishes  of  the  government,  which  demanded  the  exemp- 
tion of  raw  materials,  so  indispensable  to  our  industries ; 
but  after  that  the  debate  continued  in  a  manner  unfav- 
orable to  its  programme  of  "moderate  tariffing. "^ 

The  general  tariff  was  approved  on  July  18,  1891,  by 
387  votes  against  110.  In  the  Senate,  the  tariff  was 
accepted  and  defended  with  still  more  resignation  and 
still  less  confidence  than  in  the  Chamber.^     The  exam- 

1  Speech  of  M.  de  Freycinet,  President  of  the  Council,  made  in  the 
Chamber  of  Deputies  on  May  22, 1891. 

2  When  the  turn  of  the  discussion  on  the  colonial  tariff  came,  it  was 
assimilated  to  the  general  tariff  as  to  its  import  duties  into  the  colonies, 
and  the  advantage  of  half  duty  for  the  entry  into  France  of  colonial  wares 
was  granted. 

3  The  product  of  the  taxes  for  1891  surpassed  all  expectations  by  more 
than  100,000,000  francs,  and  the  corresponding  receipts  and  expenditures  by 
nearly  107,000,000  francs ;  so  it  may  be  said  that  France  found  herself  in 


THE  TRIUMPH  OF  THE  REPUBLIC.  251 

pie  set  by  France  found  few  imitators.  But  it  brought 
about  a  certain  tension  of  relations  and  bad  humor 
between  her  and  her  neighbors.  On  December  7  the 
Cabinets  of  the  Triple  Alliance  communicated  to  the 
Chambers  of  Rome,  Berlin,  Vienna,  and  Budapest 
the  treaties  just  signed,  which  proposed,  by  a  lower- 
ing of  custom-house  tariffs,  a  Tariff  Union  of  central 
Europe.  As  the  squadrons  despatched  by  way  of  an 
embassy  now  constituted  a  sort  of  diplomatic  navy,  so 
the  means  of  drawing  closer  political  alliances  was  to 
be  sought  in  commercial  understandings. 

Without  pretending  to  pronounce  a  premature  judg- 
ment upon  the  work  of  protection,  it  is  permissible  to 
furnish,  as  an  epilogue  to  this  brief  analysis,  the  words 
uttered  in  the  course  of  the  discussion  by  a  representa- 
tive of  Beauce:  "The  definitive  solution  of  the  agra- 
rian problem  does  not  lie  in  the  custom-house ;  it  is  to 
be  found  in  science,  in  the  augmentation  of  the  yield 
through  perfecting  methods."  Many  of  those  who  con- 
tributed to  the  establishment  of  the  tariff  share  this 
view,  and  think  that  the  custom-house  is  an  expedient 
and  that  science  alone  holds  the  solution. 

Contrary  to  what  had  so  often  been  seen,  it  was  not 
the  majority  which  first  fell  to  pieces ;  strange  to  say, 
it  was  the  ministry  which  got  tired  of  being  supported. 
M.  de  Freycinet  and  some  of  his  colleagues,  at  a  time 
of  less  peaceable  parliamentary  labor,  had  contracted 
the  habit  of  balancing,  and  sometimes  it  happened  that 
they  treated  the  large  and  confiding  majority  which 
they  had  before  them  as  unstable  mixtures  of  groups 
upon  which  they  had  formerly  been  forced  to  seek  a 

full  industrial  flight.  On  the  other  hand,  provisions  were  made  in  view  of 
the  approaching  change  of  system,  so  that  it  is  difficult  to  regard  these 
figures  as  normal. 


252  THE  EVOLUTION   OF  FRANCE. 

precarious  support.  Suddenly  they  were  again  attacked 
by  tlie  fear  of  being  compromised  by  the  Pope  or  anxiety 
lest  they  should  lose  the  secret  of  the  famous  policy  of 
concentration.  By  a  singular  aberration,  they  selected 
the  moment  when  Leo  XIII.,  addressing  an  encyclical 
letter  to  the  Roman  Catholics  of  France,  enjoined  upon 
them  adherence  to  the  Republic,^  to  bring  in  the  project 
for  a  law  concerning  associations,  which  contained  the 
germ  of  a  veritable  persecution  of  the  religious  bodies. 
A  Cabinet  capable  of  engaging  in  such  an  enterprise, 
in  the  midst  of  a  period  of  pacification,  ^  deserved  the 
fate  which  the  Chamber  dealt  out  to  M.  de  Freycinet 
and  his  colleagues. 

After  long  parleying,  it  was  M.  Loubet,  senator, 
who  proceeded  to  a  sort  of  remodelling  of  the  Cabinet. ^ 
Perhaps  it  would  have  been  a  propitious  moment  at 
which  to  appeal  to  new  and  young  men.  For  a  long 
time  the  same  personages  had  been  seen  passing  their 
portfolios  to  each  other,  executing  chassSs  back  and 
forth  which  were  often  lacking  in  opportuneness ;  the 
prestige  of  the  government  could  but  suffer  from  this. 
Circumstances  were  on  the  point  of  bringing  about  this 
political  purification  under  awkward  conditions. 

1  Shortly  before,  the  Pope  had  granted  to  M.  Judet,  of  the  Petit  Journal, 
an  interview  which  made  a  good  deal  of  commotion. 

2  The  incidents  which  had  taken  place  in  Rome  in  October,  1891,  during 
the  pilgrimages  of  French  workingmen,  and  which  we  shall  touch  upon 
hereafter,  were  of  no  importance  except  that  they  gave  the  Italians  an 
occasion  to  display  their  bad  feelings  towards  France.  The  French  govern- 
ment, on  this  occasion,  did  not  show  itself  equal  to  its  task. 

8  The  crisis  was  long ;  MM.  Rouvier  and  Bourgeois  had  tried  in  vain 
to  solve  it.  M.  Loubet  took  the  portfolio  of  M.  Constans ;  MM.  Barbey, 
Fallieres,  and  Yves  Guyot  were  replaced  by  MM.  Cavaignac,  Ricard,  and 
Viette.  Shortly  after  M.  Cavaignac,  injured  by  a  vote  of  the  Chamber 
which  ordered  him  to  place  the  naval  forces  under  the  command  of  the 
head  of  the  land  army  during  the  Dahomey  expedition,  resigned.  M. 
Burdeau  succeeded  him,  and  confided  the  command  of  the  expedition  to 
Colonel  Dodds. 


THE  TRIUMPH  OF  THE  REPUBLIC.  253 

The  municipal  elections  of  May  1,  1892,  ^  and  the 
departmental  elections  of  July  31  and  August  7,^  had 
shown  the  constantly  growing  progress  of  republican 
opinion ;  the  centenary  of  Valmy  and  that  of  September 
22,  1792,  had  been  brilliantly  celebrated;  on  June  14 
French  government  stocks  reached  par ;  finally,  during 
his  triumphal  journey  in  the  East,  M.  Carnot  received 
a  visit  from  the  Grand  Duke  Constantine,^  who  came 
to  greet  him  in  the  name  of  the  Tzar,  and  the  brill- 
iantly conducted  campaign  in  Dahomey  ended,  on 
November  17,  with  the  capture  of  Abomey.  This 
series  of  happy  events  showed  the  stability  of  the 
Republic,  its  credit,  its  prestige,  and  the  force  of  its 
arms;  and,  in  spite  of  all,  a  dull  uneasiness  spread 
abroad,  which  did  not  proceed  solely  from  the  anar- 
chistic crimes  of  which  Paris  was  the  theatre;*  their 
frequency,  their  tragic  character,  might  inspire  terror 
in  some  persons  and  diminish  the  number  of  foreign 
visitors  to  Paris,  but  it  had  speedily  been  understood  — 
and  the  anarchists  had  themselves  perceived  the  fact 
—  that  not  by  such  means  is  "an  end  to  be  put  to 
bourgeois   society."     There  were  other  things:   there 

1  They  gave  the  following  results :  Before  the  elections,  there  were 
20,642  republican  municipal  councils,  against  15,402  reactionary;  after 
the  elections,  there  were  23,524  republican  municipal  councils,  against 
12,409  reactionary. 

Twenty-two  capitals  of  departments  or  districts  remained  in  the  hands 
of  the  reactionaries,  against  336  directed  by  the  republicans. 

2  They  gave  a  net  gain  of  181  seats  to  the  republicans. 

3  The  Emperor  of  Russia  was  then  at  Kiel  with  the  German  Emperor. 
The  visit  of  Grand  Duke  Constantine  was  regarded  as  intended  to  remove 
all  political  significance  from  the  interview  at  Kiel. 

*  There  were  four  explosions  between  February  29  and  March  27. 
Then,  when  Ravachol  was  captured,  the  restaurant  Very,  the  scene  of  his 
arrest,  was  blown  up.  Then  the  anarchists  tried  to  destroy  the  offices  of 
the  Carmaux  Company,  whose  workmen  were  on  strike ;  but  the  bomb 
was  carried  to  the  police  station  of  the  Rue  des  Bons-Enfants ;  there  it 
burst,  and  injured  many  victims. 


254  THE  EVOLUTION  OF  FRANCE. 

was  a  certain  press,  born  with  Boulangism,  which 
had  grown  up  with  it  and  had  survived  it ;  there  was 
the  nervousness  of  public  opinion,  which  had  become 
accustomed  to  Rochefort's  sensational  news,  to  his 
witty  and  caustic  calumnies,  and  continued  to  spy  out 
seasoning  and  shady  machinations  in  the  undercurrent 
of  politics;  and,  in  conclusion,  there  was  that  anxiety 
to  find  conspirators  everywhere,  which  M.  Ribot  had 
pointed  out  as  early  as  1883.  The  revelations  of 
M.  Terrail-Mermeix,  an  obscure  follower  of  General 
Boulanger,  who  had  hastened,  after  the  breaking  up 
of  the  party,  to  effect  a  right-about  face,  had  made 
known  the  strange  conventicles  in  which  ro3'alists 
and  Boulan gists  had  taken  part.  The  story  of  the 
three  millions  of  francs  for  electoral  purposes,  given 
by  the  Duchesse  d'Uzes,  seemed  at  first  sight  a  fable 
devoid  of  all  appearance  of  truth.  Then  the  details 
were  made  more  precise,  and  soon  people  were  forced 
to  believe  it.  Out  of  devotion  to  the  royalist  cause 
and  to  the  person  of  the  Comte  de  Paris,  the  Duchesse 
d'Uzes  had  placed  a  sum  of  three  million  francs  at 
the  disposal  of  the  royalist  and  Boulangist  electoral 
committees,  which  were  making  the  campaign  to- 
gether. The  royalists  were  only  too  ready  to  believe 
that  Boulanger  would  consent  to  play  the  part 
formerly  played  by  Monk  in  England,  or,  at  least, 
that  if  he  would  not  consent  to  it,  he  might  be 
treated  in  such  a  manner  as  to  compel  him  thereto. 
These  romantic  adventures  had  at  first  amused,  then 
caught  the  popular  imagination,  which  had  become 
rather  nervous. 

When  an  affair  came  up  like  that  of  melinite  (1891), 
the  public  seized  hold  upon  it,  took  a  passionate  in- 
terest  in   it,  with   eagerness   for   unexpected   details. 


THE  TRIUMPH  OF  THE  REPUBLIC.  255 

A  multitude  of  journals  supplied  them  day  by  day, 
and,  when  circumstances  were  favorable  thereto,  hour 
by  hour.  This  public  was  delighted  to  learn  that  M. 
Laur,  from  the  lofty  height  of  the  tribune,  had  poured 
forth  insult  upon  M.  Constans,  then  Minister  of  the 
Interior,  and  that  the  latter,  in  indignation,  had  slapped 
his  insulter's  face ;  ^  it  was  in  ecstasies  over  M.  Dru- 
mont's  violent  diatribes,  and  regarded  as  very  ingenious 
the  unworthy  suspicions  directed  against  a  remarkably 
virtuous  and  upright  man,  one  of  the  best  servitors  of 
his  country,  M.  Burdeau;^  and  it  took  an  interest  in 
the  efforts  made  to  impeach  the  President  of  the  Repub- 
lic, though  he  appeared  to  be  entirely  out  of  reach. 
They  set  their  wits  to  work  to  "discover"  M.  Carnot, 
by  attributing  to  him  marked  political  preferences,  un- 
constitutional meddling,  or  some  secret  design  intended 
to  secure  his  re-election.^ 

These  manoeuvres  found  most  sympathy  with  the 
population  of  Paris;  in  the  country  they  were  taken 
up  by  those  young  squires  who,  having  received  no 
inheritance  save  hatred  of  the  Republic,  would  have 
liked  to  see  it  superseded  by  a  system  of  government 
more  inclined  to  favor  their  noble  indolence.  The 
opposition  of  the  Right  sought  the  means  to  utilize 

1  This  incident  occasioned  several  encounters  with  fists  in  the  Cham- 
ber: this  day  was  called,  "the  day  of  face  slapping."  When  the  sitting, 
which  it  had  heen  necessary  to  suspend,  was  resumed,  M.  Constans  made 
his  excuses  for  having  yielded  to  a  very  legitimate  impulse  of  anger. 

2  M.  Burdeau,  who  brought  in  the  bill  concerning  the  renewal  of 
charter  for  the  Bank  of  France,  had  concluded  upon  its  adoption. 
Drumont  accused  him  of  having  been  bribed  by  the  Rothschilds.  He  was 
prosecuted,  and  being  unable  to  furnish  the  slightest  proof  of  his  state- 
ment, he  was  severely  condemned.  M.  Burdeau  died  President  of  the 
Chamber  in  1894;  he  never  could  be  comforted  for  having  been  sus- 
pected. 

B  People  had  already  begun  to  talk  of  it,  although  more  than  two  years 
had  yet  to  elapse  before  the  end  of  the  seven  years'  term. 


256  THE  EVOLUTION  OF  FRANCE. 

this  unfortunate  tendency  to  calumny;  it  was  on  the 
lookout  for  some  enormous  scandal  which  would  put 
the  government  in  the  wrong.  That  would  be  its  last 
card ;  it  might  as  well  be  played  at  once. 

The  Panama  Company  had  failed,  and  this  failure 
had  fallen  heavily  on  small  savings;  the  enormous 
magnitude  of  the  sums  swallowed  up  in  this  disaster, 
the  persons  compromised,  certain  indications  which 
prompted  a  suspicion  of  criminal  acts, —  all  contributed 
to  give  to  this  affair  an  exceptional  scope.  So  they 
determined  to  make  use  of  it ;  the  plot  was  organized 
in  the  greatest  secrecy,  and  on  November  21,  1892, 
M.  Delahaye,  deputy  for  Indre-et-Loire,  mounted  the 
tribune  with  a  very  mysterious  air  for  the  purpose  of 
insinuating  that  the  republican  party,  rotten  to  the 
core,  had  devoured  in  subsidies  and  in  bribes  money 
subscribed  for  piercing  the  Isthmus  of  Panama.  The 
death  of  a  financier  of  bad  reputation,  Baron  J.  de 
Reinach,  which  took  place  on  the  eve  of  the  question 
and  under  conditions  which  led  to  the  belief  that  it  was 
a  suicide,  emphasized  the  opportunity  in  a  dramatic 
manner.  In  the  Chamber  men  were  immediately  united 
in  the  unanimous  desire,  either  feigned  or  real,  to 
"throw  light  on  the  subject."  The  President  of  the 
Council,  M.  Loubet,  whose  honesty  rose  in  revolt,  the 
republican  deputies  anxious  to  justify  themselves  with- 
out delay,  the  socialists,  happy  at  hitting  "  infamous 
capital,"  the  monarchists,  rejoicing  in  the  harm  done 
to  the  Republic,  were  all  in  accord;  the  culprits,  if 
any  there  were,  shouted  more  loudly  than  the  rest.  A 
committee  of  inquiry  was  appointed,  presided  over  by 
M.  Brisson;  they  demanded  an  autopsy  on  the  body  of 
Baron  de  Reinach,  and  in  the  meantime  the  ministry 
was  overthrown,  as  it  had  expected  to  be.     A  new  re- 


THE  TRIUMPH  OF  THE  REPUBLIC.  257 

arrangement  of  the  Cabinet  took  place  on  December  5, 
under  the  presidency  of  M.  Ribot.^ 

Then  it  was  that  the  sensational  revelation  of  the 
Figaro  intervened.  There  was  a  story  concerning  a 
nocturnal  visit  made  to  Dr.  Cornelius  Herz  by  MM. 
Rouvier,  Cl^menceau,  and  Baron  de  Reinach,  a  few 
hours  before  the  death  of  the  latter.  The  public  at  large 
heard  for  the  first  time  the  name  of  the  American  advent- 
urer whose  extraordinary  influence  had  long  been  known 
in  the  world  of  politics,  without  any  one  being  able  to 
unravel  the  cause  thereof. ^  So  far  as  M.  Rouvier  was 
concerned,  the  statement  was  correct;  he  had  acted  im- 
prudently by  undertaking  —  he,  the  Minister  of  Finance 
—  to  serve  the  interests  of  M.  de  Reinach,  but  his  inter- 
vention had  been  usefully  exercised  in  many  analogous 
cases ;  his  share  in  the  affair  of  the  Discount  Bank,  or 
in  that  of  the  Society  of  Deposit  and  Current  Accounts, 
had  won  him  the  praise  of  capitalists,  and  the  fall  on 
Exchange  caused  by  the  news  of  his  resignation  pro- 
claimed with  sufficient  clearness  the  gratitude  which 
these  men  owed  to  him.  M.  Rouvier,  feeling  that  he 
was  harmed,  resigned,  and  M.  Tirard  took  his  port- 
folio. In  the  meantime  MM.  Charles  de  Lesseps, 
Marius  Fontane,  Cottu,  and  Sans-Leroy  were  arrested, 
m      and  trials  were  ordered  in  the  cases  of  MM.  Emmanuel 

Hl  1  MM.  Brissou  and  Casimir-Perier  had  failed  in  their  attempt  to  form  a 

^^m  Cabinet.  M.  Ribot  retained  his  former  colleagues ;  he  confined  himself  to 
^^f  replacing  MM.  Ricard  and  Jules  Roche  by  MM.  Charles  Dupuy  and 
^F  Siegfried.  M.  Dupuy  took  Public  Education ;  his  predecessor,  M.  Leon 
^^M  Bourgeois,  had  the  seals.  M.  Siegfried  entered  the  Ministry  of  Commerce. 
^^B  2  It  was  in  this  manner  that  Dr.  Herz  had  been  raised,  in  1886,  to  the 
^^m  dignity  of  grand  officer  of  the  Legion  of  Honor,  M.  de  Freycinet,  who 
^^V  was  called  to  account  for  this  nomination,  was  much  embarrassed  to  find 
^^B  an  explanation.  Dr.  Herz  was  a  type  of  the  rotten  American  politician, 
^^B  a  type  unknown  in  Europe :  corruption  was,  for  him,  not  only  a  weapon 
^^m  but  a  sport.  He  did  not  content  himself  with  making  use  of  it ;  he  took 
^^B   pleasure  in  it. 

i     ' 


258  THE  EVOLUTION   OF  FRANCE. 

Ar^ne,  Dugu6  de  la  Fauconnerie,  Antonin  Proust, 
Jules  Roche,  and  Rouvier,  deputies,  Bdral,  Dev^s, 
Albert  Gr^vy,  L^on  Renault,  and  Th^venet,  senators. 

From  that  day  forth  there  was  an  uninterrupted  suc- 
cession of  scandals ;  everything  was  strange ;  the  Com- 
mittee of  Inquiry  assumed  the  airs  of  a  court  of  justice ; 
no  one  knew  any  longer  where  justice  resided,  at  the 
courts  or  in  the  Chamber.  The  deputies  suspected  each 
other  and  displayed  "austerities  to  suit  the  occasion." ^ 
M.  Andrieux  published  a  fictitious  list  of  "check- 
takers,"  procured  no  one  knew  where,  and  to  which  no 
name  was  appended;  there  was  a  gap  in  the  document 
where  the  name  should  have  been,  and  through  it  the 
most  monstrous  calumnies  could  pass.  Public  opinion 
allowed  itself  to  be  caught  by  this  coarse  farce,  and 
every  one  set  about  discovering  the  name  of  this  M. 
X ,  as  to  whom  M.  Andrieux  pretended  unwilling- 
ness to  give  any  explanation;  no  one  knew  what  to 
invent;  one  day  it  was  a  question  of  an  ambassador 
accredited  to  the  government  of  the  Republic,  and  the 
next  day  of  a  person  nearly  connected  with  the  head  of 
the  State. 

All  these  calumnies  had  their  echo  abroad;  sover- 
eigns felt  themselves  in  peril  of  being  insulted  in  the 
persons  of  their  representatives,  and  the  German  press 
insinuated,  in  high  glee,  that  henceforth  it  would  be 
sufficient  to  send  plain  charges  d'affaires  to  the  Repub- 
lic. It  became  necessary  to  demand  excuses  from  the 
Swiss  government  for  a  serious  insult  to  France  during 
the  carnival  of  Berne. ^     A  despicable  attempt  to  dis- 


1  Words  uttered  in  the  Chamber  by  M.  Ribot,  President  of  the  Council. 

2  An  international  cavalcade  contained  a  group  representing  France ; 
the  head  of  the  State  and  his  ministers  were  shown  handcuffed,  and  being 
led  away  by  gendarmes. 


A.     RIBOT,     DEPUTY    AND     PRIME    MINISTER. 


;UFI7BRSIT7] 


THE  TBIUMPH  OF  THE  REPUBLIC.  259 

credit  it  was  aimed  at  the  Savings  Bank  and  came  near 
causing  a  panic. ^  Every  moment  we  felt  that  we  had 
been  betrayed;  now  a  journal,  an  agency  for  political 
news,  was  denounced  as  having  been  sold  abroad. 
The  most  resounding  accusation  was  formulated  against 
M.  Cl^menceau,  by  M.  D^roulede,  in  terms  of  indig- 
nant eloquence ;  the  leader  of  the  radical  party  paid, 
on  that  day,  by  seeing  all  hands  forsake  his,  for  the 
immoral  pleasure  which  he  had  enjoyed  of  gambling  in 
politics  as  men  gamble  on  'Change,  of  feeding  public 
opinion  on  dangerous  chimeras,  of  continually  impeding 
the  progress  of  business ;  his  whole  political  existence 
had  had  but  one  aim,  to  destroy,  and  but  one  means, 
intrigue.  Men  are  most  often  moved  by  the  ardent 
desire  to  surpass,  to  supplant  each  other ;  this  man  was 
not  anxious  to  win  himself,  it  sufficed  him  to  prevent 
others  from  winning ;  he  desired  only  a  negative  power, 
and  loved  to  exercise  it  unexpectedly;  his  morbid 
dilettanteism  impelled  him  to  paralyze  undertakings, 
to  discourage  sincere  effort,  to  sow  distrust,  to  raise 
obstacles,  to  arouse  hatreds,  to  utilize  grudges;  the 
qualities  of  his  mind  rendered  his  action  formidable, 
for  pure  logic  seemed  to  guide  his  mind,  and  the  pre- 
cision of  his  language  redoubled  its  force;  thus  he 
succeeded  in  imposing  his  rule  upon  groups  formed  by 


1  The  question  of  the  Savings  Bank  had  formed  the  object,  in  the  pre- 
vious year,  of  a  proposed  law.  In  1875  the  sum-total  of  deposits  did  not 
exceed  680,000,000  francs.  In  1891  it  was  3,655,000,000  francs ;  this  result 
was  explained  by  the  distrust  caused  by  the  financial  disasters,  and  by  the 
facilities  granted  to  depositors ;  the  foundation,  in  1881,  of  the  Postal  Bank, 
the  establishment  of  2000  instead  of  1000  francs  as  the  maximum  deposit,  and 
80  forth.  Petty  capitalists  used  the  Savings  Bank  as  a  definitive  invest- 
ipent,  the  interest  being  high,  instead  of  a  temporary  place  of  deposit. 
M.  Siegfried  proposed,  in  an  amendment  which  bore  his  name,  to  author- 
ize the  Bank  of  Deposits  to  employ  the  resources  which  came  from  the 
Savings  Banks  in  direct  loans  to  communes. 


260  THE  EVOLUTION  OF  FRANCE. 

chance,  which  afterwards  disbanded,  rather  confused 
at  having  taken  part  in  the  unlucky  work. 

In  a  short  time  most  of  the  members  of  the  govern- 
ment had  been  changed;  one  man  after  another  was 
disqualified,  sometimes  for  errors  more  or  less  grave 
but  well  defined,  again  for  unimportant  peccadilloes; 
the  mania  for  accusation  had  so  upset  all  minds  that 
no  one  could  any  longer  distinguish  the  true  from  the 
false,  or  reprehensible  acts  from  those  which  had  been 
simply  awkward  or  inopportune.  The  ministry  under- 
went a  transformation;  the  President  of  the  Council 
took  the  portfolio  of  the  Interior;  MM.  de  Freycinet, 
Loubet,  and  Burdeau  resigned  ;i  people  did  not  fail  to 
say  that  they  felt  "compromised."  These  successive 
"  disembarkations  "  both  diverted  and  puzzled  the  gal- 
lery gods ;  not  appreciating  the  swaggering  manner  in 
which  M.  Ribot  withstood  the  storm,  they  reproached 
him  with  acrimony  for  every  impatient  movement,  for 
the  slightest  nervousness;  nevertheless,  he  did  not 
weary  in  unmasking  the  odious  calculation  of  those 
who  had  provoked  this  painful  crisis,  or  in  bidding 
the  republican  majority  recover  their  calmness  and 
composure. 

The  President  of  the  Chamber  was  not  re-elected; 
Floquet  was  reproached  with  having  dictated  to  the 
Panama  Company  its  liberality  to  the  press,  and  to 
have  recommended  to  it  certain  journals  which  were 
favorable  to  the  Republic  in  preference  to  others ;  M. 
Casimir-Pdrier  was  elected  in  his  place. ^  As  for  the 
President  of  the  Senate,  he  voluntarily  and  without 
plausible  pretext  quitted  the  post  which  he  had  so  long 

1  M.  Develle  passed  to  the  Ministry  of  Foreign  Affairs ;  General  Loi- 
zillon  and  Admiral  Rieuuier  replaced  3IM.  de  Freycinet  and  Burdeau. 

2  M.  Casimir-Perier  was  replaced  as  Vice-President  of  the  Chamber 
by  M.  Felix  Faure. 


THE  TRIUMPH  OF  THE  REPUBLIC.  261 

occupied.  These  changes  overwhelmed  with  delight 
the  organs  of  the  unconstitutional  parties,  who  drew  the 
inference  that  ingratitude  is  the  essence  even  of  the 
Republic ;  they  enlarged  upon  this  philosophical  theme, 
by  making  much  of  examples,  and  contrasted  the  eager- 
ness, from  antiquity  down  to  our  own  time,  to  recom- 
pense for  services  rendered,  which  distinguishes  mo- 
narchical governments,  with  the  indifference  which 
democracy  shows  to  those  who  have  most  faithfully 
served  it!  Unfortunately,  by  attributing  to  Jules  Ferry 
the  inheritance  of  M.  le  Royer,  the  senators  gave  the  lie 
to  this  declamatory  thesis ;  death  seemed  to  be  waiting 
until  the  justice  of  his  fellow-countrymen  should  put 
an  end  to  the  ostracism  which  weighed  upon  him  before 
it  struck  down  the  great  statesman.  Three  weeks  later 
Jules  Ferry  died  suddenly,  and  his  obsequies  assumed 
the  character  of  a  great  national  reparation. ^  In  the 
midst  of  all  these  perturbations,  the  voice  of  the  pon- 
tiff was  again  raised;  in  a  letter  addressed  to  M.  de 
Mun,  the  Pope  upheld  his  former  instructions  and 
implicitly  condemned  the  enterprise  of  the  enemies  of 
the  Republic. 

This  enterprise  was  about  to  suffer  shipwreck;  their 
calculations  proved  to  be  false;  by  cleverly  stringing 
along  the  revelations  and  scandals,  they  had  flattered 
themselves  that  they  would  be  able  to  keep  public  opin- 
ion in  good  working  order  until  the  elections ;  they  had 
counted  upon  the  resistance  of  the  government,  imagin- 
ing that  the  few  failings  of  which  they  had  obtained 
proofs  were  only  the  vanguard  of  an  immense  multitude 
of  faults  and  felonies  whose  traces  they  would  discover 
one  after  the  other.  Far  from  shunning  the  light,  the 
government  had  aided  in  shedding  it  upon  the  subject, 

1  M.  Challemel-Lacour  followed  hiai  as  President  of  the  Senate. 


262  THE  EVOLUTION  OF  FRANCE. 

and  on  the  whole  a  result  was  reached  which  was  quite 
opposed  to  that  which  had  been  aimed  at.  Even  admit- 
ting that  some  of  the  decisions  to  the  effect  that  there 
were  no  grounds  of  prosecution,  rendered  in  favor  of 
certain  members  of  Parliament  included  in  the  trials, 
were  dictated  by  too  great  indulgence,^  the  result  was 
far  from  that  general  accusation  launched  against  an 
entire  party,  from  that  general  suspicion  in  which 
almost  the  whole  republican  party  had  been  massed 
together.  On  the  other  hand,  the  Panama  trial  had 
revealed  strange  financial  ways  and  made  known  the 
moral  decrepitude  of  a  portion  of  society  which  did  not 
busy  itself  with  politics,  and  in  whom  the  thirst  for 
money  had  obliterated  the  sense  of  honor  and  of  duty. 
In  the  light  of  this  sinister  discoi^'ery,  what  has  been 
named  "anti-Semitism  "  suddenly  assumed  a  significance 
and  a  field  of  action ;  despite  the  guilty  exaggerations 
and  the  malicious  exaltation  of  its  instigators  this  move- 
ment of  revolt  was  explicable  and  almost  excusable. 
Only  it  was  easy  to  divine  that  the  masses,  always 
inclined  to  simplification,  would  end  by  overwhelming 
Jews  and  Christians  with  the  same  disdain,  and  would 
extend  to  capitalists  in  general  the  responsibility  for 
the  detestable  practices  which  had  just  been  revealed 
to  them.  The  result  of  this  could  not  be  other  than  a 
progress  of  socialistic  ideas,  and  a  force  of  argument 
added  to  those  which  the  advocates  of  the  limitation 
of  private  fortunes  already  wield.     The  political  world 

1  The  mandates  for  non-prosecution  once  issued,  the  trial  began  on 
March  8,  before  the  Court  of  Appeals  in  Paris ;  JIM.  Charles  de  Lesseps, 
Baihiit,  former  minister,  and  Blondin  were  severely  condemned ;  the  rest 
were  acquitted.  In  vain  had  the  effort  been  made  at  the  court  of  trial  to 
turn  an  incident  raised  by  Mme.  Cottu's  testimony  into  an  argument 
against  the  Minister  of  Justice,  M.  Leon  Bourgeois;  the  latter  immedi- 
ately resigned  and  defended  himself  in  terms  which  left  no  doubt  as  to 
his  sincerity. 


THE  TRIUMPH  OF  THE  REPUBLIC.  263 

had  been  the  most  aimed  at;  it  was  the  least  injured. 
An  attempt  had  been  made  to  establish  the  venality  of 
the  "  new  strata  " ;  the  outcome  had  been  to  demonstrate 
their  resistance  to  a  temptation  of  whose  force  and  fre- 
quency the  public,  up  to  that  time,  had  been  ignorant ; 
instead  of  proving  that  many  votes  had  been  sold,  it 
was  proved  that  there  had  been  a  great  many  purchasers 
of  votes,  which  is  a  very  different  matter. 

As  the  Panama  effervescence  subsided,  a  ministerial 
crisis  arose,  and  M.  Charles  Dupuy  became  President 
of  the  Council.  1  In  his  statement,  read  before  Parlia- 
ment, this  brief  phrase  was  noticed,  which  formulated 
with  abrupt  and  noble  frankness  the  moral  to  be  drawn 
from  recent  events :  "  One  lesson,  nevertheless,  stands 
out  from  these  trials ;  it  is  that  a  competency  and  fort- 
une are  acquired  only  by  labor,  and  are  preserved  only 
by  correct  habits  and  dignity  of  life."  No  one  was 
better  qualified  to  pronounce  these  fine  words  than  the 
new  head  of  the  Cabinet,  who,  sprung  from  the  hum- 
blest rank,  had  behind  him  a  life  of  uprightness  and  of 
honest  toil ;  ^  but  there  were  many  who  had  the  right  to 
repeat  them.  In  democracies  the  attraction  exercised 
by  power  may  lead  men  to  consent  to  compromises  with 

1  The  monthly  instalments  voted  at  the  end  of  1892  having  been 
exhausted,  it  had  been  necessary  to  vote  more ;  a  financial  battle  broke 
out  between  the  two  Chambers,  and  the  Cabinet  was  overthrown.  After  a 
fruitless  attempt  by  M.  Meline,  M.  Charles  Dupuy  formed  the  new  Cabinet. 
MM.  Develle,  Viger,  Viette,  General  Loizillon,  and  Admiral  Rieunier  kept 
their  portfolios.  M.  Poincarre  assumed  that  of  Public  Education,  M.  Pey- 
tral  of  Finance,  M.  Guerin  of  Justice,  and  M.  Terrier  of  Commerce. 

2  M.  Charles  Dupuy,  the  son  of  a  simple  peasant,  had  contrived  to 
raise  himself,  by  his  merit,  to  a  professorship,  and  then  to  the  functions 
of  rector  of  Academy,  the  highest  which  are  at  the  disposal  of  the  Minis- 
ter of  Public  Education.  Then  it  was  that  he  became  a  deputy;  as  the 
position  of  rector  was  not  compatible  with  his  warrant,  he  was  obliged  to 
leave  it.  But  he  continued  to  be  particularly  interested  in  educational 
matters,  and  made  it  his  specialty  in  the  Chamber.  Afterwards,  he  be- 
came Minister  of  Public  Education,  then  President  of  the  Council. 


264  THE  EVOLUTION   OF  FRANCE. 

their  consciences  and  to  flatter  the  passions  of  the 
populace,  to  whom,  after  all,  each  man  is  responsible. 
/In  France  another  danger  exists :  power  preserves  the 
forms  and  appearances  of  the  monarchical  state  of 
things ;  those  who  govern  receive  not  only  the  trust  of 
authority,  they  inhabit  sumptuous  palaces,  honors  are 
paid  to  them,  they  escape  in  a  way  from  their  habitual 
circle,  and  during  the  whole  duration  of  the  functions 
which  have  devolved  upon  them  by  the  will  of  the 
majority,  whose  delegates  they  are,  their  material  exist- 
ence is  embellished  and  transformed;  these  are  advan- 
tages to  which  human  nature  is  prone  to  accustom  itself 
rapidly  and  to  renounce  with  difficulty.  If  we  take 
account  of  those  who  have  abandoned  without  hesita- 
tion, if  not  without  regret,  the  gilded  decorations  of 
their  official  residences,  to  resume  a  narrow,  modest 
life,  we  shall  see  that  the  Third  Republic  has  been 
served  with  a  disinterestedness  which  many  a  monarchy 
has  not  known. 

The  mania  for  accusations  died  out  with  the  affair 
known  as  that  of  the  forged  papers.  The  journal  La 
Cocarde  announced  one  day,  with  great  uproar,  that  it 
was  in  possession  of  the  gravest  sort  of  documents, 
which  had  been  abstracted  from  the  English  Embassy ; 
the  editor  even  let  it  be  understood  that  the  theft  had 
been  organized  through  his  activity.  Very  stupidly 
M.  Millevoye  took  these  documents  to  the  tribune  of 
the  Chamber  and  read  them;  his  communication  was 
greeted  with  tremendous  laughter,  so  plainly  did  the 
ridiculous  exaggeration  of  the  language  and  the  absurd- 
ity of  the  ideas  bespeak  the  falsity  of  their  origin.  The 
deputies  were  rather  ashamed  of  having  listened  to  these 
silly  stories,  and  public  opinion  of  having  allowed 
itself  to  be  taken  in  by  them. 


THE  TRIUMPH   OF  THE  REPUBLIC.  265 

Calmness  had  been  restored  to  men's  minds  when  the 
electoral  period  opened.  The  leaders  and  the  important 
men  of  each  party  had  their  word  to  say.  MM.  Casi- 
mir-Pdrier,  Constans,  and  Spuller  sounded  the  moderate 
note,  and  M.  Goblet  struck  the  key-note  for  "govern- 
ment socialists."  M.  L^on  Say  spoke  like  an  old  liberal 
and  M.  d'Haussonville  like  an  impenitent  monarchist; 
the  constitutionals  entered  upon  the  scene  under  the 
very  loyal  leadership  of  Prince  d'Arenberg,  their  lieu- 
tenant-colonel. ^  M.  Dupuy  declared  that  he  felt  assured 
as  to  the  success  of  this  great  national  conference ;  his 
good  temper  and  good  sense  pleased  the  country,  which 
was  charmed  to  find  at  last  a  man  who  was  sure  of  him- 
self; confidence  was,  perhaps,  the  quality  in  which  his 
predecessors  had  been  most  deficient,  therefore  it  was 
all  the  more  appreciated  in  him.  Nothing  disturbed 
the  serenity  of  the  President  of  the  Council:  neither 
the  disorders  incited  by  the  students,  who,  seconded, 
then  outdone,  by  the  workingmen  on  strike,  set  one 
quarter  of  Paris  into  revolution  for  the  space  of  two 
weeks, ^  nor  foreign  complications  which  might  involve 
very  energetic  action  on  the  part  of  the  French  fleet  in 
Siam.^ 

1  The  nominal  leader  of  the  party  was  its  founder,  M.  Jacques  Piou. 

2  A  certain  effervescence  had  shown  itself  in  the  Latin  Quarter,  in  con- 
sequence of  a  sentence  of  punishment  pronounced  upon  several  students, 
who  were  guilty  of  having  exhibited  indecent  costumes  at  the  ' '  Ball  of 
the  Four  Arts."  The  police  interfered  with  brutality:  during  a  charge 
directed  against  the  cafe  d'Harcourt,  an  inoffensive  young  man,  M.  Nuger, 
was  accidentally  killed  by  an  object  thrown  by  a  policeman ;  this  was  the 
signal  for  regular  riots  which  were  repeated  for  several  days,  and  were 
repressed  in  a  violent  manner.  The  general  association  of  students  dis- 
claimed responsibility  by  a  proclamation.  In  consequence  of  these  events, 
M.  Loze,  Prefect  of  Police,  was  provided  with  a  diplomatic  post,  and 
succeeded  by  M.  Lepine. 

8  Admiral  Humann  forced  the  passes  of  the  Menam,  and  dropped 
anchor  in  front  of  Bangkok ;  an  ultimatum  was  presented  to  the  King  of 
Siam,  and  accepted  by  him. 


266  THE  EVOLUTION  OF  FRANCE. 

The  elections  took  place  on  August  20  and  Septem- 
ber 3,  1893 ;  they  returned  to  the  Palais-Bourbon  311 
government  republicans,  122  radicals,  35  mugwumps, 
68  reactionaries,  and  49  socialists.  The  Republic 
gained  sixty  seats ;  the  persons  who  had  had  the  chief 
share  in  putting  on  the  boards  the  Panama  tragi- 
comedy, MM.  Delahaye,  Andrieux,  Drumont,  failed 
of  re-election,  together  with  MM.  Naquet,  Maurice 
Barres,  and  Saint-Martin,  waifs  of  Boulangism.  M. 
Cldmenceau,  also,  was  returned  to  private  life,  while 
MM.  Burdeau,  Jules  Roche,  Rouvier,  Ardne,  and  all 
the  ministers  obtained  the  renewal  of  their  warrants 
and  important  majorities. 

Never  before  had  universal  suffrage  pronounced  its 
verdict  so  plainly;  but  its  verdict  was  accentuated 
without  being  modified ;  it  was  still  the  same  negative 
reply  given  to  the  agitated  and  to  the  "ameliorators," 
always  the  same  countersign  of  wise,  slow  progress, 
the  same  repugnance  for  violent  solutions,  the  same 
distrust  of  the  absolute.  Never  was  there  an  institu- 
tion more  attacked  and  more  maligned  than  universal 
suffrage ;  the  reactionaries  beheld  in  it  the  primal  cause 
of  all  the  evils  over  which  they  grieved ;  it  represented 
for  them  what  freemasonry  represents  to  the  clergy. 
But  at  the  same  time  they  still  cherished  the  hope  of 
some  great  change  which  might  be  effected,  thanks  to 
it;  they  anticipated  its  inconsiderate  rages,  its  change- 
ableness,  and  could  not  foresee  the  rigid  perseverance 
of  which  it  bore  the  marks. ^     "Isolated  individuals 

1  "Universal  suffrage  is  the  honor  of  the  masses,  legal  life  for  all," 
Jules  Ferry  had  said  in  1863;  "  it  is  in  it  that  we  must,  henceforth,  live, 
hope,  and  helieve;  even  as  an  enemy  we  must  love  it.  It  has  been  said  of 
governments  that  they  are  not  tents  of  repose ;  we  must  think  of  liberty, 
that  it  is  not  alone  a  portico  to  victory. ' '  (Jules  Ferry,  La  Lutte  Electorate 
en  1883.) 


THE  TBIUMPH  OF  THE  REPUBLIC.  267 

who  take  part  in  an  election,"  said  Aristotle,  "will  be 
less  able  to  judge  than  the  wise  men;  but,  in  their 
union,  they  will  be  worth  much  more."  It  was  re- 
served for  the  Third  Republic  to  demonstrate  how  true 
this  saying  has  remained  through  all  the  ages.  Uni- 
versal suffrage  has  taken  the  present  government  from 
the  hands  of  its  founders,  and  has  guided  it  amid 
numerous  and  formidable  obstacles  until  it  reached 
maturity.  Thrice  has  the  pressure  of  men  and  circum- 
stances been  brought  to  bear  upon  it  without  causing  it 
to  deviate  from  its  path;  neither  in  1877,  nor  in  1889, 
nor  in  1893,  has  it  been  possible  to  obtain  from  it  the 
condemnation  of  the  republicans ;  it  had  shown  in  1885 
that  it  knew  how  to  appreciate  their  faults  and  did  not 
remain  insensible  to  them;  but  why  a  revolution  where 
a  hint  was  sufficient? 

In  order  to  explain  their  successive  defeats,  'the 
opponents  had  recourse  to  the  easy  reproach  of  official 
interference;  there  was  some  interference,  it  is  true, 
thanks  to  that  administrative  centralization  which  gives 
to  the  prefect,  the  representative  of  the  minister,  a 
greater  authority  than  that  pertaining  to  the  minister 
himself;  when  the  prefect  desires  to  exhibit  zeal,  or 
when  his  own  opinions  carry  him  further  than  the 
instructions  which  he  has  received,  he  has  within  his 
reach  weapons  of  which  he  can  make  improper  use ;  but 
however  energetic  may  be  his  action,  it  is,  neverthe- 
less, exercised  in  a  restricted  sphere;  the  number  is 
considerable  of  those  whom  it  does  not  reach,  and  upon 
whom,  on  the  contrary,  is  exercised  the  action,  some- 
times far  more  powerful,  of  the  great  landed  proprietors, 
the  rich  manufacturers.  Ever  since  1877,  moreover, 
the  government  has  loyally  endeavored  to  secure  the 
liberty  of  elections,  and  comparison  with  foreign  coun- 


268  THE  EVOLUTION  OF  FRANCE. 

tries  will  lead  any  fair-minded  man  to  the  conclusion 
that  universal  suffrage  is  in  France  to-day  as  free  as 
public  life,  still  so  imperfect,  permits  it  to  be;  it  is 
more  free,  in  any  case,  than  restricted  suffrage  ever 
was. 

On  October  13,  1893,  the  Russian  fleet  entered  Tou- 
lon, bringing  to  France  a  new  message  of  friendship  ;  the 
demonstrations  of  sympathy  between  the  two  nations, 
while  less  spontaneous  than  at  the  epoch  of  the  Cron- 
stadt  interview,  were  grander,  and  of  more  vivid  sig- 
nificance; henceforth  it  was  impossible  to  deny  the 
existence  of  a  durable  agreement  between  the  Muscovite 
Empire  and  the  Republic ;  Europe  showed  her  chagrin, 
and  certain  correspondents  of  foreign  journals  at  Paris 
injected  ^into  their  description  of  the  Franco-Russian 
entertainments  all  the  malevolence  of  which  they  were 
capable.  The  people  of  the  capital  did,  it  is  true, 
mingle  with  their  enthusiasm  a  little  childishness,  and 
the  national  dignity  suffered,  sometimes,  from  its  too 
joyous  demonstrations.  It  managed,  at  least,  to  sus- 
pend them  to  watch  the  passage  of  the  solemn  funeral 
procession  of  Marshal  MacMahon  ;  behind  the  coffin  of 
the  former  President  of  the  Republic,  all  armies  were 
represented  in  a  unanimous  homage  which  was  ad- 
dressed to  the  entire  nation  ;  it  found  therein  the  just 
recompense  of  many  labors,  and  of  many  efforts. 

At  the  beginning  of  the  parliamentary  session,  a  new 
ministry  was  formed.  M.  Casimir-Perier  appeared  to 
be  the  man  required ;  it  was  expected  that  he  would 
give  a  new  prestige  to  the  presidency  of  the  Council. 
Up  to  that  time  the  head  of  the  Cabinet  had  been  almost 
the  equal,  in  power  and  authority,  of  his  colleagues ; 
both  came  to  an  agreement  and  settled  upon  a  common 
programme.     The  inconveniences  of  this  method  had 


THE  TRIUMPH  OF  THE  REPUBLIC.  269 

been  recognized,  and  it  was  considered  desirable  to 
modify  it  in  the  direction  of  British  parliamentary 
practice  ;  it  was  the  place  of  the  "  premier  "  to  have  his 
programme,  and  to  find  colleagues  who  would  apply 
it.  M.  Casimir-Perier,  then,  assumed  power,^  and  his 
predecessor,  M.  Charles  Dupuy,  exercised  in  his  place 
the  functions  of  President  of  the  Chamber.  He  dis- 
tinguished himself  there  under  tragic  circumstances. 
On  December  9,  1893,  an  anarchist  named  Vaillant 
hurled  from  the  galleries  of  the  hall  of  session  a  bomb 
whose  terrible  effects  were  lessened  by  a  providential 
chance ;  tliere  were  some  wounded,  but  no  dead.^  As 
the  bomb  filled  the  hall  with  smoke,  and  startled  those 
present,  President  Dupuy  uttered  these  simple  words, 
thenceforth  historical :  "  Gentlemen,  the  sitting  is  in 
progress.  .  .  ."  The  deputies  remained  in  their  places, 
and  the  deliberations^  were  hardly  interrupted.  Such 
incidents,  painful  and  alarming  as  they  were,  could  not 
diminish  the  impression  of  beneficent  calm  which  per- 
meated all  minds.  Every  one  felt  that  the  period  of 
great  political  battles  was  over,  and  that  dynastic  oppo- 
sitions had  lost  all  their  foundations. 

Here,  on  the  threshold  of  the  year  1894,  which  was 
to  be  clouded  by  a  great  national  sorrow,  we  will  close 
this  study  ;  to  carry  it  further  would  be  to  incur  the 
risk  of  encroaching  on  the  uncertain  future.   The  events 

1  M.  Casimir-Perier  took  the  post  of  Foreign  Affairs.  MM.  Raynal, 
Burdeau,  Spuller,  Antonin  Dubost,  Viger,  Marty,  Jonnart,  General  Mer- 
cier,  and  Admiral  Lefevre  were  his  colleagues.  M.  Maurice  Lebon  occu- 
pied the  post  of  Secretary  of  State  for  the  colonies.  Later  on,  a  ministry 
of  the  colonies  was  created,  whose  first  incumbent  was  M.  Boulanger, 
senator. 

2  The  most  grievously  wounded  was  M.  L'Abb^  Lemire,  deputy  of  the 
Nord. 

*  Most  of  the  foreign  parliaments  sent  to  the  French  Chamber  and  to 
its  president  the  expression  of  their  sympathy  and  admiration. 


270  THE  EVOLUTION  OF  FRANCE. 

which  marked  it  have  not  ceased  to  produce  their  ef- 
fects ;  but  there  is  one  whose  consequences  manifested 
themselves  so  instantaneously  th^t  we  are  able  to  esti- 
mate their  value  even  now.  The  crime  of  June  24, 
1894,  conferred  upon  the  Republic  the  supreme  con- 
secration ;  the  wretches  who  conceived  it  had  not 
dreamed  of  the  counter-shocks  of  eternal  justice.  After 
having  presented  an  example  of  all  public  and  private 
virtues,  President  Carnot  was  preparing,  on  the  com- 
pletion of  his  task,  to  surrender  into  other  hands  the 
lofty  functions  which  he  had  exercised  since  1887.  He 
considered  himself  happy  in  having  consecrated  to  Ids 
country,  according  to  his  promise,  all  the  strength  a?id 
devotion  which  he  possessed,  and  intended  to  remain 
faithful  to  the  Constitution  by  not  accepting  a  renewal 
of  his  power.  For  the  last  time,  in  the  streets  of  Lyons, 
he  was  tasting  the  joy  of  sincere  acclamations  and  of  a 
popularity  which  was  becoming  daily  more  emphatic. 
He  had  just  made  one  of  those  thoughtful  speeches  in 
which  one  was  certain  to  find  an  appeal  to  concord,  a 
reason  for  being  hopeful  for  the  future,  or  for  believing 
in  progress.  In  that  city  which  was  keeping  holiday,  a 
wretch  who  had  never  seen  him  advanced  to  meet  him 
and  when  he  caught  sight  of  him  killed  him. 

His  friends  and  his  enemies  have  said  of  him  that  he 
was  honest;  but  that  word  ought  not  to  have  for  him 
the  same  meaning  as  for  others ;  he  was  honest,  in  fact, 
with  a  rare  and  exquisite  honesty  which  extended  to 
every  moment  of  his  existence,  and  to  all  the  manifes- 
tations of  his  thought,  with  an  honesty  so  pure,  so 
upright,  so  absolute  that  France  sometimes  forgot  to 
notice  it,  as  if  she  found  it  quite  natural  to  have  for 
chief  the  most  virtuous  of  her  sons. 

History  will  recount  in  detail  the  services  rendered 


THE  TRIUMPH  OF  THE  REPUBLIC.  271 

by  President  Carnot  to  his  country,  the  prestige  with 
which  he  understood  how  to  surround  his  functions, 
the  discreet  but  efficacious  influence  which  he  exercised 
upon  his  ministers,  his  love  for  his  country,  his  careful 
encouragement  of  undertakings,  his  sympathy  for  young 
people,  his  serene  confidence  in  difficulties,  and  his  in- 
vincible faith  in  the  destiny  of  his  country.  It  will 
narrate,  above  all,  that  he  has  deserved  to  serve  his 
country  after  his  death,  for  his  blood  has  crimsoned  the 
summits  of  the  Republic.  The  men  of  humble  origin 
who  have  made  it  were  all  rendered  great  by  the 
dagger  of  Caserio,  and  ancient  Gaul  felt,  as  she  gathered 
round  that  tomb,  that  her  new  destinies  and  her  free 
institutions  had  received  baptism  before  the  eyes  of 
nations  and  of  kings. 


272  THE  EVOLUTION  OF  FRANCE. 


CHAPTER  X. 

THE  REPUBLIC  AND  THE  CHURCH. 

Church  and  State.  — Religious  Policy.  —  The  Congress  of  Mechlin,  and  the 
Encyclical  Quanta  Cura.  —  The  Designs  of  Leo  XIH. — The  Toast  of 
Algiers.  —  Constitution  of  the  Republican  Right.  —  Political  Evolution, 
and  Social  Evolution.  —  The  Encyclical  Rerum  Novarum.  —  Resistance : 
Declaration  of  the  Cardinals.  —  Immovability  of  the  Sovereign  Pontiff. 
—  The  Results.  —  The  "  Great  Problem." 

It  was  in  the  logic  of  things  that  a  conflict  should 
break  out  between  the  Third  Republic  and  the  Roman 
Church,  not  that  Roman  Catholicism  and  democracy 
are  incompatible,  but  because  the  long  and  passionate 
struggle  directed  by  the  Roman  Catholics  of  France 
against  republican  institutions  must,  necessarily,  lead 
to  reprisals.  What,  on  the  other  hand,  was  not  difficult 
to  foresee  was,  that  Rome  would  find  in  republican 
France  a  fulcrum  to  accomplish  an  evolution  towards 
democracy. 

Religion,  which  patronized  the  old  system  of  govern- 
ment, was  reduced  by  Napoleon  to  the  part  of  the 
patronized,  and  the  Concordat  riveted  the  chains  which 
fettered  it  to  the  State ;  that  great  act  put  an  end  to  a 
situation  full  of  perils,  but  it  contained  the  germ  of  a 
serious  moral  misapprehension.  Napoleon  and  his  suc- 
cessors considered  religion  as  a  State  service,  and  the 
bishops  and  priests  as  functionaries  charged  with  ren- 
dering it  stable ;  the  bishops  and  priests  regarded  them- 
selves as  independent  dignitaries,  treating  with  the 
State  as  equal  powers.  Hence  the  intermeddling  of 
the  clergy  in  politics,  which  our  various  governments 


k 


THE  REPUBLIC  AND  THE  CHURCH.  273 

have  by  turns  favored  and  combated,  according  to  their 
origin  or  their  tendencies.  On  neither  side  was  a  claim 
of  neutrality  made ;  it  was  understood  that  the  Church 
of  France  was  governmental  or  in  opposition ;  it  never 
entered  any  one's  head  that  it  could  remain  neutral. 
"Under  the  sceptical  and  indifferent  government  of 
Louis  Philippe,"  wrote  M.  de  Montalembert,  in  1863, 
"  the  clergy  regained  a  portion  of  the  legitimate  influ- 
ence which  the  favors  of  the  Restoration  had  caused  it 
to  lose ; "  and  the  great  writer  added  these  prophetic 
words:  "If  a  new  revolution  were  to  break  out  to- 
morrow, one  shudders  at  the  thought  of  the  ransom 
which  the  clergy  would  have  to  pay  for  the  illusory 
solidarity  which  has  seemed  to  reign  for  several  years 
between  the  Church  and  the  Empire."  In  fact,  after 
having  greeted  with  enthusiasm  the  revolution  of  1848, 
after  having  blessed  the  liberty-poles  and  sung  heartily 
the  Domine  salvamfac  rempublicam,  the  French  priests 
rallied  round  the  Empire  and  beheld  it  crumble  with 
regret ;  they  also  took  an  active  part  in  the  struggles 
of  the  early  years  of  the  Republic,  and  so  long  as  the 
form  of  government  remained  in  question,  they  tried  to 
aid  in  a  restoration  of  the  monarchy.  ^  May  16  found 
in  them  warm  partisans;  they  openly  compromised 
themselves  in  the  electoral  battle,  and  defeat  left  them 
face  to  face  with  republican  grudges,  summed  up  in 
Gambetta's  celebrated  saying :  "  Clericalism,  that  is 
the  enemy !  "  But  clericalism  was  not  Christianity. 
It  has  been  excellently  defined:    "Politics  muffled  in 

1  See  the  pamphlet  of  M.  Pichon,  deputy  of  the  Seine,  on  La  Diplomatie 
de  VEglise  et  la  Troisieme  R^publiqne.  Therein  the  author  studies  the 
character  of  three  prelates  of  entirely  different  origin,  temperament,  rela- 
tions, and  opinions,  Monseigneur  Dupanloup,  and  Cardinals  Pic  and  Bon- 
nechose;  he  shows  them  united  in  a  common  opposition  to  the  republican 
form,  for  the  benefit  of  three  different  monarchical  solutions. 


274  THE  EVOLUTION   OF  FRANCE. 

the  mask  of  religion.  "^  Even  after  the  16th  of  May, 
it  would  have  been  possible  for  the  clergy,  if  not  to 
regain  the  good  graces  of  the  government,  at  least  to 
secure  its  friendly  neutrality,  by  separating  its  cause 
plainly  from  that  of  the  monarchy.  But  to  act  thus 
was  to  deal  a  fatal  blow  to  all  the  pious  works  which 
royalist  money  had  supported,  almost  unaided,  up  to 
that  time. 2  In  the  ranks  of  the  lower  clergy  many 
desired,  nevertheless,  adhesion  to  the  Republic;  epis- 
copal influence  deterred  them.^  The  French  secular 
priests  are,  in  a  way,  infinitely  respectable ;  their  habits 
are  pure,  but  their  intellectual  development  is  insuffi- 
cient ;  in  their  seminaries  they  undergo  the  tyranny  of 
an  education  based  on  the  ideas  of  another  age,  which 
does  not  strengthen  the  body,  does  not  form  the  char- 
acter, and  fills  the  mind  with  vague  formulas.  But 
while  in  the  country  curate  there  frequently  reappear, 
under  the  scholastic  varnish,  the  strong  qualities  of 
uprightness  and  good  sense  of  the  peasants  from  whom 
he  has  sprung,  the  bishop,  isolated  from  his  fellow-men, 
finds  again  in  the  rather  solemn  luxury  of  his  palace, 
in  the  homage  of  which  his  person  is  the  object,  a  sort 
of  dimmed  image  of  the  part  which  his  predecessors 
played  under  the  ancient  monarchy;  if  it  does  not  react 
against  his  every-day  impressions,  he  comes  to  imagine 

1 E.  Spoiler,  L'Svolution  Sociale  et  Politique  de  I'Eglise.  1  vol.  Alcan, 
1893. 

2  This  was  plainly  visible  later  on,  when  Cardinal  Lavigerie  gave  the 
signal  for  rallying  round  the  Republic.  The  contributions  of  the  faithful, 
by  the  aid  of  which  the  illustrious  prelate  supported  his  African  labors, 
underwent  a  decided  diminution ;  it  was  the  same  with  the  Saint  Peter's 
Pence,  so  far  as  France  is  concerned,  when  Leo  XIII.  had  stated  with  pre- 
cision his  attitude  with  regard  to  the  Republic. 

2  The  curate  of  a  little  town  in  Normandy  was  the  first  to  utter  in 
public  words  of  adhesion  to  the  Republic  which  Cardinal  Lavigerie,  in  his 
turn,  uttered  in  1891,  and  which  produced  such  a  sensation. 


THE  REPUBLIC  AND  THE  CHURCH.  2T5 

that  lie  has  the  right  to  exercise,  and  sometimes  that  he 
really  does  exercise,  an  influence  upon  public  affairs ; 
he  is  thus  led  to  give  his  advice  on  everything,  to  deal 
with  electoral  and  diplomatic  questions,  to  make  aston- 
ishing distinctions  between  the  laws,  some  of  which  he 
pronounces  to  be  wise  and  others  infamous,  ^  and  finally 
to  write  those  letters  or  those  pastoral  charges  wherein 
he  sets  forth,  with  a  sort  of  unconsciousness,  his  con- 
ception of  the  civil  organization,  and  addresses  to  the 
public  powers  remonstrances  or  exhortations  which  are 
more  than  a  century  behind  the  times,  as  to  the  ideas 
and  the  habits  of  the  present  day.  It  is  true  that,  as 
the  nomination  of  bishops  results  from  an  agreement 
between  the  government  and  the  Holy  See,  the  Minis- 
try of  Public  Worship  ought  to  be  held  responsible  for 
the  selections  which  it  makes,  and  which  are  then  sub- 
mitted for  approbation  to  the  Pope.  The  present  epoch 
has  seen  a  certain  number  of  liberal,  patriotic  priests, 
animated  by  an  apostolic  zeal  for  good  and  filled  with 
the  spirit  of  charity ;  but  such  men  have  not  always  the 
qualities  requisite  for  administering  a  diocese.  The 
directors  of  Public  Worship  ^  have  had  occasion,  more- 
over, to  discover  that  the  bishop  rarely  continues  his 
character  as  priest,  and  that  many  ecclesiastics,  rightly 
regarded  as  moderate  in  their  opinions,  become  after 


1  See  the  harangue  addressed  by  the  Bishop  of  Angers  to  M.  Andre 
Lebon,  Minister  of  Commerce,  in  the  course  of  one  of  his  journeys  (1895). 

2  The  directors  of  Public  Worship  do  not  share  the  fate  of  the  ministers, 
their  hierarchical  superiors;  they  generally  belong  to  the  Council  of  State 
and  maintain  good  relations  with  the  clergy,  but  the  functionaries  who  are 
placed  under  their  orders,  embittered  by  continual  contact  with  a  social 
circle  of  which  they  understand  neither  the  cast  of  mind  nor  the  language, 
have  too  often  paralyzed  the  good  intentions  of  their  chiefs,  and  have  pre- 
vented harmony  from  reigning  between  the  management  and  the  church. 
The  directors  of  Public  Worship  have  been,  since  1870,  MM.  Tardif,  Lafer- 
riere,  Castagnari,  Flourens,  Bousquet,  and  Dumay. 


276  THE  EVOLUTION   OF  FRANCE. 

their  elevation  to  the  episcopate  autocratic  and  ultra  in 
their  views.  It  is  not  necessary  to  seek  the  cause  for 
this  elsewhere  than  in  the  influence  exercised  upon 
them  by  the  tokens  of  respect  and  veneration  shown  to 
them  by  the  laity,  who  demand  in  return  from  their 
bishops  their  aid  in  political  struggles. 

When  the  clericals  find  themselves  turned  out  of 
power,  they  turn  naturally  to  education;  for  it  is  by 
extending  their  domination  over  young  people  that  they 
can  pave  the  way  for  the  return  of  their  governmental 
influence.  In  France  the  primary  school,  which  was 
destined  to  become  in  a  way  the  corner-stone  of  the 
Republic,  was  in  the  hands  of  the  priests.  Could  it 
remain  there  ?  It  is  a  prerogative  of  republican  tradi- 
tions to  develop  education  by  all  possible  means.  The 
Republic  of  1848  did  not  fail  to  do  so ;  but,  surrounded 
by  the  good  wishes  and  the  sympathy  of  the  clergy,  to 
whom  it  brought  liberty  with  the  end  of  a  regimen  of 
suspicion  and  stifling,  it  did  not  think  it  necessary  to 
secularize  the  schools. ^  The  republicans  of  1876,  on 
the  contrary,  had  a  very  definite  impression  that  the 
schools  would  be  the  vulnerable  point  upon  which  the 
reactionaries  would  concentrate  their  efforts,  the  fissure 
through  which  they  would  attempt  to  introduce  the 
pickaxe  into  the  new  edifice.  Their  principal  anxiety, 
therefore,  was  to  secularize  them  and  to  transfer  them 
to  trusty  hands.  Had  the  question  been  propounded  a 
little  less  brutally,^  had  the  Roman  Catholics,  on  the 

1  See  the  circulars  of  M.  Hippolyte  Carnot,  then  Minister  of  Public 
Education. 

2  "  Everybody  now  knows  that  M.  Jules  Ferry's  plans  were  submitted 
to  the  Council  only  as  a  matter  of  form,  that  the  other  ministers  barely 
heard  them  read,  without  exactly  comprehending  their  scope  and  the 
sensation  which  they  were  fated  to  create."  (Revue  des  Deux  Mondes. 
Chronique.)    This  assertion  appears  greatly  exaggerated. 


THE  REPUBLIC  AND    THE  CHURCH.  277 

other  hand,  formulated  their  demands  in  a  less  aggres- 
sive tone  and  imparted  to  their  resistance  a  less  violent 
air,  the  reform  would  not  have  been  accomplished  in  so 
radical  a  manner;  many  compromises  would  have  been 
obtained,  which  liberal  minds  have  regretted  their  ina- 
bility to  introduce  into  the  law ;  such  as,  for  example, 
the  power  of  the  Minister  of  Public  Worship  to  intro- 
duce religious  instruction  into  the  schools  once  a  week, 
outside  of  recitation  hours. ^  Absolute  neutrality  can 
exist  only  in  theory ;  by  seeking  to  render  complete  the 
separation  between  religious  instruction  and  general  in- 
struction, between  the  priest  and  the  schoolmaster,  the 
latter  has,  in  a  way,  been  incited  to  regard  the  rep- 
resentative of  the  ecclesiastical  authority  in  the  light 
of  his  personal  adversary.  This  resulted,  especially  in 
the  small  rural  communes,  in  strained  relations,  which 
sometimes  degenerated  into  open  hostility.  Such,  as- 
suredly, was  not  the  object  of  the  legislator,  who  was 


1  In  June  and  July,  1882,  during  the  debate  upon  the  law  concerning 
secondary  education,  Jules  Ferry  repulsed,  in  the  following  terms,  the 
proposition  which  bore  upon  forbidding  ecclesiastics  to  teach,  a  propo- 
sition which  was  supported,  among  others,  by  M.  Madier  de  Montjau: 
"Yes,  it  was  persecution  of  the  clergy  which  ruined  the  French  Revo- 
lution. That  is  the  lesson  of  history,  and  in  spite  of  your  objections, 
every  one  who  has  reflected  in  the  least  upon  these  things  is  ready  to 
recognize  the  fact.  We  told  you  so,  when  we  began  with  you  the  struggle 
against  clericalism  ;  we  said  in  the  Senate  :  Our  policy  is  anti-clerical ;  it 
will  never  be  anti-religious.  ...  If  you  wish  to  take  education  away 
from  the  priests,  it  is  not  because  they  are  functionaries,  it  is  because 
their  doctrines  alarm  you.  Well,  you  will  not  get  the  better  of  their 
doctrines  by  thrusting  the  clergy  outside  the  law,  or,  as  you  have  said,  by 
trying  to  get  the  better  of  them.  You  will  rid  yourselves  of  the  teach- 
ing clergy,  but  you  will  be  obliged  to  rid  yourselves  also  of  Roman  Catho- 
lic lay  teachers.  Thus  it  is  with  Roman  Catholicism  that  you  will  have  to 
wage  war.  Well,  that  is  a  policy  which  we  shall  never  adopt,  and  this  I 
say  in  harmony  —  at  least  I  think  so  —  with  the  great  majority  of  my 
party ;  that  is  a  policy  which  I  reject  with  all  the  forces  of  my  republican 
conscience,  with  all  the  forces  of  my  liberal  soul,  and  of  my  faith  in  truth, 
in  reason,  and  in  justice." 


278  THE  EVOLUTION   OF  FRANCE. 

anxious  that  the  reform  should  not  be  applied  as  rapidly 
as  it  had  been  conceived,  but  progressively,  in  such  a 
way  as  to  respect  as  far  as  possible  rights  already 
acquired. 

On  the  field  of  secondary  education  the  battle,  though 
more  underhand,  was  none  the  less  fierce.  There,  in 
fact,  one  was  no  longer  confronted  by  the  secular 
clergy,  democratic  in  origin  and  more  easily  won  over 
to  republican  views;  one  found  oneself  face  to  face 
with  the  religious  bodies,  rich  and  powerful,  proud  of 
the  important  part  which  they  had  played  in  the  past, 
and  in  advance,  in  many  points  of  detail,  of  the  Uni- 
versity in  the  line  of  pedagogical  reforms.  No  doubt 
they  might  be  reduced  to  a  state  of  impotency  by  a 
direct  or  indirect  prohibition  to  teach;  not  only  all 
favors,  but  all  positions,  might  be  reserved  for  young 
men,  who  would  justify  this  by  their  presence  for  a 
minimum  number  of  years  in  the  State  lyceums  and 
colleges;  and,  finally,  the  system  of  university  estab- 
lishments might  be  improved  in  such  a  manner  as  to 
render  them  capable  of  entering  into  serious  competi- 
tion with  the  ecclesiastical  establishments.  It  is  infi- 
nitel}'^  honorable  to  the  republican  party  that  it  adopted 
this  last  solution  of  the  difficulty,  which  was  the  slow- 
est and  most  laborious,  but  also  the  most  just  and  the 
most  liberal  of  the  three.  The  second,  advocated  at 
different  times  by  the  radicals,  was  never  considered; 
the  first  seems  to  have  haunted  for  a  moment  the  mind 
of  Jules  Ferry,  but  he  was  not  slow  to  perceive  how 
contrary  such  a  policy  was  to  the  traditions  and  the 
foundations  of  the  republican  government.  Moreover, 
how  was  a  distinction  to  be  established  and  maintained 
between  the  authorized  and  the  unauthorized  religious 
bodies  ?     "  Authorization  is  a  formality  which  has  fallen 


THE  REPUBLIC  AND   THE  CHURCH.  279 

somewhat  into  desuetude,  because,  far  from  insuring  to 
the  religious  orders  who  provided  themselves  therewith 
a  privileged  situation,  it  augmented  their  burdens,  and 
subjected  them  to  an  irritating  supervision  on  the  part 
of  the  State.  An  unauthorized  religious  body  neces- 
sarily escapes  all  precise  definitions.  It  is  not  recog- 
nized, that  is  evident,  and  does  not  ask  to  be ;  it  has 
no  collective  character  and  does  not  show  itself  under 
any  civil  form.  The  religious  persons  who  compose  it 
come  under  the  common  law.  They  have  its  burdens 
and  its  responsibilities ;  they  have  also  its  advantages 
and  prerogatives.  In  what  way  are  these  bodies  illegal 
because  they  are  not  authorized  ?  How  is  their  authori- 
zation necessary,  since  those  who  belong  to  them  remain 
under  the  common  law  ?  "  ^  Objections  were  raised  to 
the  anti-human  character  of  the  contemplative  orders, 
to  the  unpatriotic  education  given  by  some  of  the 
teaching  orders,  and,  finally,  to  the  social  danger  re- 
sulting from  the  accumulation  of  wealth  in  convents. 
Many  Christians  consider  that  the  contemplative  life 
has  been  wrongly  introduced  into  Christianity,  which 
is  a  religion  of  action,  but  it  does  not  follow  that  the 
State  has  any  right  whatever  to  meddle,  and  to  force 
the  doors  of  modern  Port-Royals.  More  important  still 
is  the  question  of  education ;  but  there,  again,  on  what 
principle  can  intervention  be  grounded,  and  in  what 
manner  is  it  to  be  exercised?  If  one  deplores  that  a 
whole  class  of  young  Frenchmen  are  reared  in  ideas 
which  do  not  appear  to  be  those  that  would  render  them 
most  competent  to  serve  their  country,  these  ideas  are 
not,  nevertheless,  such  that  they  can  be  dealt  with  as 
one  deals  with  miasmas,  by  isolation  and  antiseptic 
treatment;  it  is  primarily  a  question  of  a  "state  of 

1  Ch.  de  Mazade,  Revue  des  Deux  Moncles.    Chronique. 


280  THE  EVOLUTION  OF  FRANCE. 

soul,"  and  states  of  souls  are  not  to  be  regulated  either 
by  circulars  or  by  laws.  As  for  the  wealth  in  the  pos- 
session of  the  religious  bodies,  however  great  it  may 
be, —  and  the  statistics  give  us  information  upon  this 
subject,^  —  it  is  not  possible  to  descry  therein  a  peril; 
the  State  has  every  means  of  defending  itself,  and  such 
laws  that  the  law  of  "  accretion  "  permits  of  its  re-estab- 
lishing the  equilibrium  between  the  taxes  of  the  reli- 
gious bodies  and  those  of  its  other  citizens.  The  tax 
on  accretion  is  even  exaggerated  in  certain  cases.  It 
is  reckoned  according  to  the  number  of  establishments 
which  a  community  possesses.  Whenever  a  nun  dies, 
each  establishment  pays  the  tax.  Now  it  is  not  the 
wealthy  orders  which  are  the  most  affected,  because  the 
"Sisters  of  Saint  Vincent  de  Paul,"  and  the  "Little 
Sisters  of  the  Poor,"  for  example,  have  many  different 
establishments,  and  all  their  property  goes  for  the 
benefit  of  the  poor.  It  is  iniquitous  to  make  so  heavy 
a  tax  rest  upon  them. 

From  primary  and  secondary  education,  the  conflict 
extended  to  higher  education.  But  higher  education 
has  made  remarkable  progress  during  the  last  thirty 
years,  for  its  progress  is  that  of  science  itself.  In  that 
field  the  ecclesiastical  professors  had  allowed  themselves 
to  fall  far  behind,  to  such  a  point  that  the  question  was 
asked  whether  any  harmony  between  science  and  faith 
were  possible.  This  is  a  vital  question;  it  has  been 
passionately  discussed.  M.  Taine,  in  a  celebrated  pas- 
sage of  his  last  work,  contrasted  the  "  two  pictures  " : 
"  that  of  science,  which  is  still  in  process  of  execution, 

1  From  statistics  drawn  up  at  the  instigation  of  Gambetta,  it  appears 
that  the  known  real  estate  owned  by  the  religious  bodies,  authorized  or 
otherwise,  represented,  in  1881,  !»'«  of  the  whole  French  territory,  and 
reached  a  purchasable  value  of  712,538,980  francs.  The  taxes  paid 
amounted  to  157,495  francs,  or  0.022  per  cent. 


i 


THE  REPUBLIC  AND   THE  CHURCH.  281 

and  on  the  way  of  advancement,"  whose  painters  "work 
from  nature,  and  make  continual  comparisons  between 
their  painting  and  the  model,"  and  that  of  faith,  dif- 
ferent in  conception,  in  development,  in  methods. 
"  Hence, "  said  he,  "  in  the  soul  of  every  Roman  Catholic 
arise  combat  and  painful  anxieties :  Which  of  the  two 
conceptions  must  be  taken  as  a  guide  ?  For  every  mind 
which  is  sincere  and  capable  of  embracing  both  simul- 
taneously, each  of  them  is  irreducible  to  the  other. 
"With  the  vulgar  mind,  incapable  of  thinking  of  them 
together,  they  dwell  side  by  side,  and  do  not  clash, 
except  at  intervals  and  when,  in  order  to  act,  a  choice 
must  be  made.  Many  intelligent,  educated,  and  even 
learned  persons,  notably  the  specialists,  avoid  bringing 
them  face  to  face,  since  the  one  is  the  support  of  their 
reason,  the  other  the  guardian  of  their  conscience; 
between  them,  and  for  the  purpose  of  preventing  pos- 
sible conflicts,  they  interpose  in  advance  a  party  wall, 
a  water-tight  partition  which  prevents  their  meeting 
and  jostling  each  other.  Others,  clever  politicians  or 
persons  who  are  not  very  clear-sighted,  try  to  bring 
them  into  harmony,  either  by  assigning  to  each  its  own 
domain,  or  by  joining  the  two  domains  by  phantom 
bridges,  by  wraiths  of  staircases,  by  those  illusive  means 
of  communication  which  the  dissolving  view  of  human 
speech  can  always  set  up  between  incompatible  things, 
and  which  furnish  man,  if  not  with  the  possession  of  a 
truth,  at  least  with  the  enjoyment  of  a  witty  sally."  ^ 
This  is  perfectly  exact;  but  the  question  remains  un- 
touched, since  the  problem  is  to  learn  whether  it  is  with 
Christianity  that  science  is  incompatible,  or  with  the 
Roman  Catholics,  such  as  they  are  to-day. 

1  H.  Taine,  Les  Origines  de  la  France  Contemporaine.    Le  Nouveau 
Rirjime. 


282  THE  EVOLUTION   OF  FRANCE. 

The  clericals  tried  to  attack  higher  education  by 
founding  Roman  Catholic  Universities  ^  and  by  organiz- 
ing scientific  congresses.  Many  of  them  think  that  it 
would  have  been  better  to  take  positions  in  the  State 
Universities  and  in  the  general  congresses,  instead  of 
shutting  themselves  up  in  institutions  or  in  discussions 
of  an  exclusive  character.  But  the  creation  of  Regional 
Universities  was  one  of  the  articles  of  that  programme 
of  decentralization  which,  during  the  last  years  of  the 
Empire,  and  under  the  influence  of  Le  Play,  had  won 
many  adherents  among  the  great  rural  proprietors ;  on 
the  other  hand,  the  most  exalted  envied  the  victories 
won  by  the  clerical  party  in  Belgium,  and  attributed 
to  the  Roman  Catholic  University  of  Louvain  a  large 
share  in  paving  the  way  for  these  victories.  As  for  the 
idea  of  convoking  an  assembly  of  "Roman  Catholic 
learned  men,"  it  had  its  birth  at  Rouen  in  1885.  It 
was  decided  to  exclude  from  the  deliberations  of  the 
future  congress  all  language  and  matters  of  discussion 
which  had  not  been  accepted  beforehand  by  the  com- 
mittee.'^ Far  from  audacious  as  was  this  plan,  it  was 
attacked  by  certain  Roman  Catholic  organs,  which 
insisted  upon  seeing  in  it  "a  deliberative  assembly, 
seeking  to  fix  principles  of  exegesis,  to  set  boundaries 
to  science  and  dogma,  to  cause  to  prevail  certain  very 

1  It  must  be  noted  that  the  theological  faculties  were  suppressed  under 
the  influence  of  ultramontane  tendencies.  Jules  Ferry,  President  of  the 
Council,  explained  himself  in  the  following  terms,  before  the  Senate,  in 
February,  1885.  "Gentlemen,  I  am  one  of  that  small  number  of  persons 
who  take  an  interest  in  the  theological  faculties.  As  Minister  of  Public 
Education,  I  made  the  most  sincere  efforts  to  put  life  into  that  institution. 
In  order  to  succeed,  I  ought  to  have  had  the  aid  of  the  bishops  and  of  the 
Roman  court.  But  the  Holy  See  does  not  care  about  it,  and  as  for  the 
bishops,  with  the  exception  of  the  Bishop  of  Rouen,  they  share  the  views 
of  the  Court  of  Rome,  which  distrusts  the  liberal  instruction  of  the  theo- 
logical faculties  and  prefers  the  courses  of  the  seminaries." 

2  Compte  rendu  des  Travaux  du  Congr^s,  Vol.  I. 


THE  BEPUBLIG  AND    THE  CHURCH.  283 

broad  standards  of  interpretation  of  the  Scriptures.^ 
The  first  congress  brought  together  eleven  hundred 
members ;  there  was  a  second,  a  few  years  later.  Their 
action  was  of  the  smallest ;  by  thus  isolating  themselves 
to  discuss  subjects  which  belong  to  all  the  world,  the 
Roman  Catholics  condemned  themselves  to  their  own 
society.  They  seemed  to  confess  that  their  faith  did 
not  agree  with  the  data  of  modern  science.  In  the 
same  way,  their  anxiety  to  keep  not  only  the  child,  but 
the  young  man  also,  apart  from  those  of  their  comrades 
who  have  received  a  different  education,  has  been  inter- 
preted to  their  discredit ;  in  this  way  they  give  rise  to 
the  idea  that  religion  is  powerless  to  make  a  profound 
impression  ujion  souls.^ 

It  is  not  alone  because  they  believe  themselves  to 
be  in  possession  of  the  only  and  sole  truth,  that  the 
Roman  Catholics  have  often  given  proofs  of  extreme 
views,  and  of  intolerance  with  regard  to  men  and  ideas, 
it  is  also  because  they  exaggerate  —  chiefly  in  France 
—  their  numerical  power;  to  tell  the  truth,  it  is  difficult 
to  estimate  it.  M.  Taine  has  justly  remarked  that 
"faith  increases  in  the  restricted  group,  and  diminishes 
in  the  large  group."  Nevertheless,  although  the  Roman 
Catholics  of  France  are  far  from  being  so  ardent,  so 
bellicose,  as  their  brethren  of  Belgium,  and  reckoning 
only  those  who  fight,  one  runs  the  risk  of  making  a 
mistake  as  to  the  force  which  they  represent  in  the 
nation ;  on  the  other  hand,  to  analyze  the  state  of  the 
religious  spirit  of  the  nation  itself,  taken  as  a  whole, 

1  Compte  rendu  des  Travaux  du  Congrds,  Vol.  I. 

2  Young  people  feel  a  certain  indifference  towards  religious  things. 
Monseigneur  Hulst  confessed  it,  saying:  "Never  have  there  been  more 
young  people  reared  in  a  Christian  manner,  never  have  there  been  fewer 
wlio  are  ready  to  devote  themselves  to  a  holy  cause  and  to  sacrifice  to  it 
tlieir  amusement."    {Le  Correapondant.) 


284  THE  EVOLUTION   OF  FRANCE. 

is  a  relatively  easy  matter.  The  first  years  of  the 
Republic  were  marked,  as  we  have  seen,  by  an  outbreak 
of  very  peculiar  mysticism.  France  was  consecrated  to 
the  Sacred  Heart;  pilgrimages  were  multiplied,  new 
devotions  were  created  and  pursued,  under  color  of  a 
unification  of  liturgy,  a  more  complete  and  more  defini- 
tive subjection  of  the  Gallic  Church  to  the  Roman 
Church.  These  exaggerations  evidently  displeased  the 
country  and  had  a  great  share  in  turning  it  towards 
the  men  of  the  Left,  to  whom  it  gave  the  command  to 
oppose  the  intermeddling  of  the  priest  in  the  govern- 
ment, and  at  the  same  time  to  guard  against  all  measures 
of  persecution.  The  men  elected  did  not  always  fol- 
low exactly  the  commands  of  their  constituents.  They 
allowed  themselves  to  be  induced,  if  not  to  persecute, 
at  least  to  harass.  We  find  in  the  municipal  law  of 
1884,  as  well  as  in  the  school  law  and  the  military  law,^ 
evident  traces  of  the  sectarian  spirit.  In  Parliament 
there  are  excesses  of  anti-clerical  zeal;  one  day  the 
stipends  of  the  seminaries  are  suppressed ;  another  day, 
the  salary  of  the  Archbishop  of  Paris  is  reduced,  or  the 
form  of  oath  is  modified  so  that  the  name  of  God  is 
excluded. 2     But  the  initiative  of  the  deputies  stopped 

1  It  is  well  to  recall  the  fact  that,  when  the  proposal  to  abrogate  Arti- 
cle 20  of  the  military  law  of  July  27,  1872,  which  exempted  students  in 
theological  seminaries  and  their  teachers,  came  before  the  Chamber,  —  M. 
Paul  Bert  brought  in  the  bill,  —  MM.  Jules  Ferry  and  Constans  defended 
with  great  energy,  but  in  vain,  the  prerogatives  of  the  clergy. 

2  In  the  Senate,  in  March,  1882,  Jules  Simon  represented  his  amend- 
ment passed  the  preceding  year,  but  not  accepted  by  the  Chamber,  and 
directed  towards  inscribing  in  the  school  law  the  words :  "  Duties  towards 
God  and  towards  country  "  (which  were  inscribed,  moreover,  in  the  regu- 
lations by  the  Supreme  Council).  "  It  is  repugnant  to  me,  a  former  pro- 
fessor," said  he,  "to  see  a  law  for  education,  and  especially  for  primary 
education,  from  which  the  name  of  God  has  been  expunged ;  it  shocks  me, 
it  grieves  me.  During  the  active  period  of  my  life  we  all  had  that  belief 
in  God.  We  regarded  it  as  our  first  duty,  as  legislators,  to  write  God  into 
our  laws,  as  it  was  our  first  duty  as  republicans  to  avenge  the  Republic 


JULES    FERRY,     DEPUTY,     PRIME    MINISTER,    AND    PRESIDENT    OF 
THE    SENATE. 


5^?^ 


or  T3X 


fU^IVBRSIT 


THE  REPUBLIC  AND   THE  CHURCH.  285 

there.  During  the  first  part  of  the  present  period  some 
of  them  proposed,  in  an  indefinite  manner,  the  suppres- 
sion of  the  French  Embassy  to  the  Vatican  and  the 
separation  of  Church  and  State;  these  persons  were 
the  first  to  rejoice  when  the  majority  decided  against 
them,  so  thoroughly  did  they  feel  themselves  to  be  out 
of  harmony  with  the  universal  opinion.  This  universal 
opinion  is  resolute  and  persevering;  little  by  little  it 
effaces  from  programmes  those  reforms  whose  emptiness 
and  sterility  it  perceives.  It  understands  that  if  the 
separation  were  to  be  effected,  "there  would  be  discord 
in  the  bosom  of  every  family,  and  greater  disunion 
amoiig  the  French  than  at  any  other  epoch.  How  long 
would  such  a  crisis  last?  No  one  can  tell.  As  it  is 
not  the  nature  of  crises  to  last,  the  country  would  wish 
to  put  an  end  to  it.  Very  speedily,  men  would  again 
begin  to  talk  of  religious  pacification,  of  necessary  ap- 
peasement."^ The  expulsion  of  the  religious  bodies 
found  no  echo  in  the  country ;  after  a  while  they  were 
allowed  to  return;  public  opinion  is  informed,  and 
silence  settles  down  upon  that  subject;  it  is  satisfied 
with  the  assurance  that  the  "government  of  the  priests  " 
will  not  be  established;  all  the  ministers  give  it  that 
assurance,  one  after  the  other:  M.  Martin-Feuill^e, 
M.  Ribot,  M.  Casimir-P^rier.  It  felt  grateful  to 
M.  Fallieres  for  causing  the  rejection  of  Paul  Bert's 
proposition,  which  aimed  at  alienating,  for  the  benefit 
of  the  school  treasury,  the  landed  estates  apportioned 
to  the  service  of  Public  Worship  in  excess  of  the  stipu- 
lations of  the  Concordat.  It  generally  is  grateful  for 
all  the  conflicts  which  it  is  spared,  and  it  demands  the 

for  all  attacks  made  upon  it  when  it  was  called  impious ;  we  demand  it 
also  for  our  soldiers,  and  we  believe  that  when  we  say  to  a  man :  '  March 
in  front  of  the  grape-sliot,'  it  is  good  to  tell  him  that  God  sees  him." 
1  Eng.  SpuUer,  L'&volution  Politique  et  Sociale  de  V^glise. 


286  THE  EVOLUTION  OF  FRANCE. 

Statu  quo,  which  it  feels  alone  can  maintain  religious 
peace.  What  the  Frenchman  desires  is,  that  he  shall 
not  be  forced  "  to  go  to  mass. "  Observe  that  the  peas- 
ants, who  never  enter  a  church,  insist  upon  possessing 
one  so  that  they  can  have  their  children  baptized  there, 
can  be  married  there,  can  bear  thither  the  bodies  of  their 
dead  relatives ;  the  enlightened  man,  the  superior  mind 
who  gets  along  without  a  formal  worship,  desires,  for 
his  part,  that  the  worship  which  he  no  longer  needs 
shall  remain  within  his  reach.  Such  sentiments  are 
nowhere  so  strongly  developed  as  in  France;  they 
answer  to  the  most  profound  tendencies  of  the  Gallic 
soul,  which  is  captivated  by  death,  and  takes  pleasure 
in  contemplating,  during  a  joyous  life,  the  disquieting 
and  grand  perspectives  of  the  world  beyond.  "  Our 
country,"  says  M.  Spuller,  "does  not  wish  to  risk  its 
repose  in  an  interminable  series  of  religious  quarrels 
and  difficulties.  It  is  neither  sufficiently  Roman  Catho- 
lic nor  sufficiently  Protestant  for  that,  nor  even  free- 
thinking  enough.  It  wants  religion,  but  in  its  own 
way;  it  takes  from  it,  and  it  leaves;  what  it  asks  of 
the  priests  is  that  they  shall  remain  in  their  churches ; 
it  has  a  horror  of  them  as  soon  as  they  emerge  thence, 
and  it  goes  thither  to  seek  them  as  soon  as  they  shut 
themselves  up  there.  "^ 

On  February  8,  1884,  Pope  Leo  XIII.,  who  for  six 
years  had  occupied  Pius  IX. 's  place  on  the  apostolic 
throne,  addressed  to  the  French  bishops  his  first  letter 
of  conciliation,  exhorting  them  not  to  show  hostility  to 
the  government. 

This  was,  as  it  were,  the  distant  signal  of  the  decided 
evolution  which  was  in  preparation.  The  Church  at 
that  epoch  resembled  those  parliamentary  governments 

1  Eug.  Spuller,  L'tlvolution  Sociale  et  Politique  de  VEglise. 


THE  REPUBLIC  AND   THE  CHURCH.  287 

where,  through  the  natural  and  regular  working  of  the 
institutions,  the  parties  succeed  each  other  alternately 
in  power,  and  where  a  powerful,  liberal  minority, 
constantly  growing  stronger,  seems  certain  to  replace 
before  long  the  reactionary  majority.  Only,  in  the 
case  of  the  Church,  the  currents  are  so  concealed,  the 
very  person  of  the  Pope,  in  his  moral  omnipotence, 
plays  so  preponderating  a  part,  that  unless  one  keeps 
a  very  close  watch  he  cannot  always  foresee  events. 
The  reactionaries  had  received  the  new  dogmas  with 
acclamations,  had  accepted  the  Syllabus  with  enthusi- 
asm; the  great  movement  inaugurated  by  Lamennais, 
Lacordaire,  and  Montalembert  seemed  finally  to  have 
perished.  Lamennais,  who  was  imprudent  in  his  lan- 
guage, had  by  his  impatience  paved  the  way  for  his  own 
defeat,  and  had  discouraged  his  allies.  Lacordaire, 
having  sown  the  good  word,  withdrew  among  the 
young,  and  tried  to  train  them  with  a  view  to  the 
battles  to  come.  Montalembert  held  his  peace,  and 
allowed  the  retrograde  current  to  spend  its  force. 
Only  once  did  he  speak  again.  It  was  at  Mechlin,  on 
August  18,  1863.  There  was  a  great  assembly  there 
of  two  or  three  thousand  Roman  Catholics,  among^hem 
Cardinal  Wiseman,  Cardinal  Ledochowski,  M.  Cochin, 
and  others.^  "The  Roman  Catholics,"  exclaimed 
Montalembert,  "  are  everywhere  inferior  to  their  adver- 
saries in  public  life,  because  they  have  not  yet  made  up 
their  minds  about  the  great  revolution  which  has  given 
birth  to  the  new  society,  the  modern  life  of  nations. 
They  feel  an  insurmountable  mixture  of  embarrassment 
and  timidity  in  the  presence  of  modern  society.  They 
have  not  yet  learned  either  to  know  it,  or  to  like  it,  or 

1  On  this  subject,  see  an  interesting  article  by  M.  de  Molinari  in  the 
Revue  des  Deux  Mondes,  September  15,  1875. 


288  THE  EVOLUTION   OF  FRANCE. 

to  frequent  it.  Many  of  them  still  belong,  in  heart,  in 
spirit,  without  being  aware  of  it,  to  the  old  order  of 
things,  that  is  to  say,  to  an  order  which  admitted 
neither  civil  equality  nor  political  liberty  nor  liberty 
of  conscience;  that  old  order  of  things  had  its  great 
and  its  beautiful  side.  I  do  not  undertake  to  judge  it, 
still  less  to  condemn  it;  it  is  enough  for  me  to  be 
cognizant  of  one  defect  in  it,  a  capital  defect;  it  is 
dead!  it  will  never  be  resuscitated  anywhere."  "This 
renunciation,"  he  said  in  another  place,  "must  not  be 
tacit  and  sincere.  It  must  become  a  common  matter  of 
knowledge  to  the  public ;  public  protest  must  be  made, 
clearly,  boldly,  on  every  occasion,  against  any  idea 
of  return  to  that  which  irritates  or  disturbs  modern 
society.  Even  if  my  respectful  voice,"  said  Montalem- 
bert  in  conclusion,  "penetrates  to  those  lofty  regions 
where  protracted  errors  may  have  such  sad  consequences, 
it  cannot  be  mistaken  there  for  the  voice  of  audacity  or 
of  imprudence :  God  gives  to  frankness,  to  fidelity,  to 
uprightness,  a  tone  which  can  neither  be  counterfeited 
nor  misunderstood."  The  appeal  was  not  heeded. 
On  December  21,  1863,  the  Pope  expressed  to  the 
Archbishop  of  Mechlin  his  sharp  displeasure;  in  the 
following  year  appeared  the  encyclical  Quanta  Cura 
(December  8,  1864),  in  which  Pius  IX.  characterized 
as  the  "  liberty  of  perdition  "  the  right  of  citizens  "  to 
disseminate  publicly  and  abroad  their  thoughts,  either 
by  word  or  through  the  press."  ^     This  demonstration 

1  There  was  another  Congress  in  1866,  in  which  Monseigneur  Dupan- 
loup,  M.  de  Falloux,  and  Father  Hyacinthe  Loyson  took  part ;  the  dis- 
cussions were  stormy;  it  became  necessary  to  dissolve  the  Congress.  The 
Congresses  of  Poitiers  and  of  Rheims,  in  1875,  brought  together  only  parti- 
sans of  the  Syllabus.  Monseigneur  Nardi  was  heard  there  against  the 
diffusion  of  education,  and  M.  de  Mun  made  a  brilliant  but  paradoxical 
apology  for  the  Middle  Ages. 


I 


THE  REPUBLIC  AND   THE  CHURCH.  289 

of  Mechlin  was  the  most  celebrated;  but  others  took 
place  which  showed  that  the  liberal  flame  was  still 
smouldering  under  the  ashes,  as  if  to  feed  some  grand 
conflagration  in  the  future.  In  the  meanwhile,  on  the 
other  side  of  the  ocean,  there  was  growing  up  that 
American  Roman  Catholicism  which  was  to  astonish 
the  old  world  with  its  daring.  Tocqueville  had  already 
noted  that  the  Roman  Catholics ^  "formed  the  most 
republican  and  most  democratic  class  in  the  United 
States,"  and  thence  he  had  concluded  "that  it  is  wrong 
to  regard  the  Roman  Catholic  religion  as  a  natural 
enemy  to  democracy;  and  that  when  the  priests  are 
once  turned  out,  or  withdraw  from  the  government,  as 
they  do  in  the  United  States,  there  are  no  men  who, 
by  their  beliefs,  are  more  disposed  to  carry  into  the 
political  world  the  idea  of  equality  of  conditions.  "^ 
When  the  American  dollar  began  to  form  a  consider- 
able part  of  the  Peter's  Pence,  the  Church  beyond  the 
sea  attracted  attention;  it  was  perceived  that  it  drew 
its  strength  from  a  return  to  primitive  Christianity. 
One  of  its  most  eloquent  representatives,  Monseigneur 
Ireland,  Archbishop  of  Saint  Paul,  Minnesota,  ex- 
pressed the  spirit  which  animates  it  in  the  following 
terms:  "Give  room  for  the  action  of  each  person. 
There  is  no  necessity  that  the  layman  should  wait  for 
the  priest,  or  that  the  priest  should  wait  for  the  bishop, 
or  that  the  bishop  should  wait  for  the  Pope  to  follow 
his  own  road.  The  timid  move  in  herds,  and  the  brave 
march  in  single  file.  .  .  .  The  religion  which  is  needed 
to-day  does  not  consist  in  chanting  fine  anthems  in  the 
stalls  of  a  cathedral,  clothed  in  gold-embroidered  orna- 

1  When  he  visited  the  United  States,  there  were  one  million  Roman 
Catholics  out  of  fifteen  million  inhabitants. 

2  A.  de  Tocqueville,  De  la  Ddmocratie  en  Am4rique,  Vol.  II. 


290  THE  EVOLUTION   OF  FRANCE. 

ments,  while  there  is  no  multitude  either  in  the  nave 
or  in  the  side  aisles,  and  while  the  world  outside  is 
dying  of  spiritual  and  moral  inanition.  Seek  out  men, 
talk  to  them,  not  in  stilted  phrases  or  by  sermons  in 
the  style  of  the  seventeenth  century,  but  in  burning 
words  which  find  the  road  to  their  hearts  at  the  same 
time  as  to  their  minds. "^  These  "burning  words" 
should  be  placed  alongside  the  following  passage  from 
de  Tocqueville:  "Nothing  is  more  revolting  to  the 
human  mind,  in  times  of  equality,  than  the  idea  of 
submitting  to  forms.  Men  who  live  in  such  times 
endure  figures  with  impatience;  symbols  appear  to 
them  as  childish  artifices,  which  are  used  to  veil  or 
array  to  their  eyes  truths  which  it  would  be  more 
natural  to  show  to  them  unclothed  and  in  broad  day- 
light; they  remain  cold  at  the  sight  of  those  cere- 
monies, and  are  naturally  inclined  to  attach  only  a 
secondary  importance  to  the  details  of  worship.  Those 
who  are  entrusted  with  regulating  the  external  form  of 
religions  in  democratic  countries  should  pay  thorough 
attention  to  these  natural  instincts  of  the  human  intel- 
ligence in  order  that  they  may  not  fight  against  them 
unnecessarily.  ...  A  religion  which  should  become 
more  minute,  more  inflexible,  and  more  burdened  with 
petty  observances  at  the  same  time  that  men  are  becom- 
ing more  equal,  would  soon  behold  itself  reduced  to  a 
troop  of  passionate  zealots  in  the  midst  of  an  incredu- 
lous multitude,  while  an  aristocratic  people  is  always 
inclined  to  place  intermediary  powers  between  God 
and  man.  "2 

It  is  therefore  erroneous  to  believe  that  the  evolution 

1  Speech  delivered  in  the  cathedral  of  Baltimore,  on  November  10, 
1889,  at  the  hundredth  anniversary  of  the  establishment  of  the  Roman 
Catholic  hierarchy  in  the  United  States. 

2  A.  de  Tocqueville,  De  la  Ddmocratie  en  AmMque,  Vol.  III. 


THE  REPUBLIC  AND   THE  CHURCH.  291 

of  which  the  French  Republic  serves  as  centre  and 
pretext  has  as  its  first  and  sole  cause  the  personal  moods 
of  the  Sovereign  Pontiff;  it  has  been  Catholic,  like  the 
Church  itself,  that  is  to  say,  universal,  and  that  is  why 
we  may  think,  with  M.  Spuller,  that  this  evolution  "  is 
called  upon  to  decide  as  to  an  entirely  new  direction  of 
human  societies."^  It  applies  to  the  one  set  of  things 
as  well  as  to  the  other,  and  is  only  the  culmination  of 
the  long  and  persevering  efforts  of  the  liberal  party. 
At  the  beginning  of  his  pontificate,  Leo  XIII.  hesitated 
for  some  time  before  he  perceived  in  a  precise  manner 
what  the  interests  of  religion  dictated.  He  recalled 
the  Germanic  Holy  Roman  Empire  and  believed  that 
monarchical  power,  isolated,  and  fortified  by  its  very 
isolation,  was  about  to  resume  charge  of  directing  the 
world;  hence  his  attitude  toward  Germany.  Pius  IX., 
his  predecessor,  had  re-established  liturgical  unity,  mul- 
tiplied the  apostolic  vicarships,  and  created  in  a  certain 
way  the  religious  press  and  Roman  Catholic  journalism, 
but  he  left  the  Holy  See  in  the  most  difficult  relations 
with  the  majority  of  the  princes,  as  with  the  majority 
of  the  Cabinets,  of  Europe.  These  faults  had  to  be 
repaired  without  compromising  the  results  already 
attained.  Where  was  the  strength  to  be  found  upon 
which  to  lean?  The  German  Csesar  and  the  Gallic 
democracy  stood  face  to  face,  incarnations  of  the  two 
powers  which  to-day  contend  for  the  universe.     Leo 

IXIIL,  having  maturely  reflected  upon  the  state  of 
affairs,  placed  his  hand  in  that  of  the  Republic.  The 
act  appeared  so  sudden  and  created  such  a  sensation 
that  it  disconcerted  all  parties,  to  such  a  degree  that 
"in  the  beginning  no  one  could  or  would  believe  it." 
It  was  necessary  to  emancipate  Roman  Catholicism 


292  THE  EVOLUTION   OF  FRANCE. 

from  monarchical  tutelage.^  Leo  XIII.  resolved  to 
extricate  it  at  the  same  time  from  the  influence  of  the 
rich,  by  taking  out  of  their  hands  the  Gospel,  pre- 
eminently the  book  of  democracy.  He  judged  that  the 
time  was  come  to  teach  laboring  men  "  not  only  their 
duties,  which  are  dinned  into  their  ears,  but  also  their 
rights,  of  which  up  to  that  time  the  clergy  had  spoken 
to  them  only  in  hints,  with  bated  breath.  "^  He  saw 
that  "  men  made  in  the  image  of  the  Creator  are  con- 
sidered by  other  men  as  parts  of  a  machine,  or  beasts 
of  burden,"  and  understood  that  "until  their  material 
condition  is  improved,  it  is  useless  to  talk  to  them  of 
the  supernatural  life."^ 

France  was  in  a  condition  to  serve  the  Pope's  plans, 
as  soon  as  he  had  settled  upon  them.  America  was  too 
far  away,  too  isolated ;  the  priests  there  are  reputed  to 
have  a  manner  of  their  own  of  interpreting  religion  and 
of  putting  it  in  practice.  Words  and  deeds  assume  a 
different  meaning  on  the  other  side  of  the  ocean.  In 
England,  the  spirit  of  independence  and  of  individual 
enterprise  is  so  general,  that  a  large  measure  of  liberty 
is  accorded  to  her,  even  in  the  theocratic  domain.  The 
blow  must  be  dealt  nearer  the  centre  of  the  Roman 

^  "  By  allying  itself  to  a  political  power,  religion  augments  its  hold 
over  some  men,"  says  de  Tocqueville  (De  la  D6mocratie  en  Amdriqiie), 
"  but  it  loses  the  hope  of  reigning  over  all.  As  long  as  a  religion  depends 
only  upon  the  sentiments  which  are  the  consolation  of  all  miseries,  it  can 
draw  to  itself  the  heart  of  the  human  race.  Mingled  with  the  bitter 
passions  of  this  world,  it  is  sometimes  constrained  to  defend  allies  fur- 
nished to  it  by  self-interest  rather  than  by  love,  and  it  must  repel  as 
adversaries  men  who  often  love  it  still,  while  they  combat  those  to  whom 
it  is  united.  Should  Roman  Catholicism  finally  succeed  in  escaping  from 
the  political  hatreds  which  it  has  aroused,  I  have  little  doubt  that  that 
same  spirit  of  the  century  which  seems  so  opposed  to  it  would  become 
A^ery  favorable  toiit,  and  that  it  would  suddenly  make  great  conquests." 

2  Speech  delivered  at  Baltimore,  October  18,  1893,  by  Monseigneur 
Ireland,  Archbishop  of  Saint  Paul. 

'Ibid. 


THE  BEPUBLIC  AND   THE  CHUBCH.  293 

Catholic  world,  where  liberal  doctrines  are  fashioned 
alongside  of  intolerant  doctrines,  where  men  are  not 
afraid  to  teach,  in  certain  circles,  that  "  liberalism  is  a 
sin,"  where  exalted  enthusiasm  and  blind  conservatism 
walk  side  by  side  and  elbow  each  other.  France,  more- 
over, had  beheld  the  dawn  of  religious  democracy  half 
a  century  before;  since  that  time  the  Republic  had 
conquered  it,  without  breaking  the  bonds  established 
between  the  clergy  and  the  State.  And,  in  conclusion, 
pontifical  action  there  was  both  near  and  powerful. 
Hence  it  was  the  best  field  for  evolutions,  as  soon  as 
quarrels  of  a  secondary  rank  should  have  been  appeased, 
as  soon  as  the  words  of  peace  had  been  exchanged  be- 
tween the  Ministers  of  Public  Worship  and  the  rulers. 
The  latter  aided  in  the  work  of  pacification,  but  nega- 
tively, and  the  Sovereign  Pontiff  now  grasped  the  fact 
that  he  alone,  as  M.  Gr^vy  had  written  to  him,  could 
exert  himself  therein  both  actively  and   effectively.^ 

1  The  reference  is  to  a  letter  addressed  to  Leo  XIII.,  in  the  month  of 
June,  1883,  by  the  President  of  the  Republic,  in  response  to  one  which  he 
had  received  from  the  Pope ;  this  correspondence,  which  was  kept  secret, 
was  known  only  after  the  death  of  M.  Grevy ;  it  was  regarded  as  having 
done  honor  to  his  tact  and  his  perspicacity.  The  Pope  asked  the  Presi- 
dent to  interfere,  as  far  as  possible,  to  stop  the  progress  of  anti-religious 
ideas.  "Your  Holiness,"  he  replied,  "complains  with  justice  of  anti- 
religious  passions ;  they  certainly  do  exist,  together  with  the  opposite  senti- 
ments of  the  great  majority  of  the  French  people ;  but  can  one  mistake 
the  fact  that  these  passions,  which  I  repel,  have  sprung  principally  from 
the  hostile  attitude  of  the  clergy  toward  the  Republic,  either  at  its  advent, 
or  in  the  struggles  which  it  had  to  undergo,  later  on,  to  maintain  its  exist- 
ence, or  in  those  which  it  still  endures,  day  by  day,  against  its  mortal 
enemies?  In  this  sad  conflict  of  opposing  passions,  lean,  unfortunately, 
do  but  very  little  with  the  enemies  of  the  Church.  Your  Holiness  can  do 
a  great  deal  with  the  enemies  of  the  Republic.  If  you  would  deign  to 
maintain  them  in  that  political  neutrality  which  is  the  great  and  wise 
intention  of  your  pontificate,  you  would  cause  us  to  take  a  decisive  step 
toward  that  very  desirable  assuagement."  It  will  be  noticed  that  this 
letter  was  written  in  the  spring  of  1883,  and  that  Leo  XIII. 's,  to  the 
French  bishops,  which  is  mentioned  above,  bears  the  date  of  February  8, 
1884. 


294  THE  EVOLUTION  OF  FRANCE. 

From  time  to  time  a  crisis  arose  which  upset  his  plans ; 
Boulangism  came  near  ruining  his  success  completely, 
because  of  the  clerical  support  which  it  had  won.  In 
spite  of  this,  the  psychological  moment  had  arrived; 
to  wait  longer  was  to  expose  himself  to  the  danger  of 
failing,  perhaps  irremediably. 

On  November  12, 1890,  Cardinal  Lavigerie,  Archbishop 
of  Carthage  ar.  d  Algiers,  Primate  of  Africa,  received  ill 
his  episcopal  palace  Admiral  Charles  Duperr^  and  the 
officers  of  his  squadron.  At  the  end  of  the  dinner  which 
he  gave  to  his  guests,  he  made  a  speech,  and  in  a  few 
brief  and  resolute  words  he  stigmatized  the  conduct  of  the 
so-called  conservatives,  who  "  offer  to  the  enemies  who 
are  watching  us  the  spectacle  of  our  ambitions  and  of  our 
hatreds,  and  cast  into  the  heart  of  France  that  discour- 
agement which  is  the  precursor  of  jB.nal  catastrophes." 

In  order  the  better  to  set  forth  the  prelate's  words, 
the  band  of  the  White  Fathers  played  the  Marseillaise. 
When  this  detail  became  known,  it  caused  even  more 
surprise  than  the  speech  itself.  The  Marseillaise  still 
remained  for  conservatives  the  sanguinary  hymn,  the 
echo  of  the  guillotine;  many  republicans  had  long  hesi- 
tated to  accept  it  as  the  national  air.  Since  1889  people 
had  become  accustomed  to  hear  it  frequently,  but  no 
one  dreamed  that  the  Republic  was  so  near  to  imposing 
it  upon  Europe.  The  royalists  were  disconcerted ;  they 
had  at  first  supposed  it  to  be  a  caprice ;  but  when  they 
beheld  the  cardinal  still  further  emphasize  his  declara- 
tions in  a  letter  to  the  priests  under  his  charge,  they 
got  the  impression  that  it  was  a  deliberate,  well-con- 
sidered act,  authorized,  no  doubt,  by  the  Pope.  Never- 
theless, they  thought  that  the  Roman  Curia,  which  is 
always  prudent,  would  confine  itself  for  the  time  being 
to   this   hint;    their   illusion    was    of   short   duration. 


THE  REPUBLIC  AND   THE  CHURCH.  295 

There  soon  appeared  a  letter  of  approbation  addressed 
by  Cardinal  Rampolla  "to  a  French  Bishop."  The 
doctrinal  and  impersonal  character  of  the  document 
deprived  it  of  none  of  its  importance. 

These  events  speedily  brought  forth  fruit.  The 
desire  for  reconciliation  came  to  light  in  the  speeches 
at  the  opening  of  the  General  Councils  (August  ses- 
sion), and  the  reassembling  of  the  Chambers  witnessed 
the  formation  of  that  republican  Right  which  had  been 
talked  of  for  so  long ;  it  bore  only  the  name  of  "  inde- 
pendent," and  the  platform  drawn  up  by  its  leader, 
M.  Jacques  Piou,  was  full  of  gaps  and  of  omissions; 
but  the  impulse  was  given.  At  the  same  time  reap- 
peared that  plan  for  a  "Roman  Catholic  party"  con- 
ceived by  Lamennais  and  Montalembert,  and  which 
M.  Guibert,^  in  1853,  had  combated  in  a  famous  pas- 
toral charge.  MM.  Chesnelong,  Keller,  and  de  Mackau, 
with  M.  de  Mun  ^  and  Cardinal  Richard,  Archbishop  of 
Paris,  founded  "the  union  of  Christian  France,"  which 
was  to  constitute  its  embryo.  The  monarchists,  feeling 
themselves  attacked,  tried  to  separate  their  cause  from 
that  of  the  Church,  in  order  to  conceal  what  the  Church 
was  attempting  to  do  on  its  side.  M.  d'Haussonville 
at  Toulouse,  and  M.  Herv^  in  the  iSoleil,  returned  on 
their  own  account  to  Gambetta's  formula,  and  repu- 
diated the  "government  of  priests."  It  became  the 
fashion  to  establish  a  distinction  which  the  Syllabus 
had  not  foreseen,  between  the  Pope  talking  of  religion 
and  worthy  of  heed,  and  the  Pope  talking  of  politics 
and  deserving  of  no  attention. 

1  Afterwards  Archbishop  of  Paris. 

2  M.  de  Mun  had  already  tried,  immediately  after  the  elections  of  1885, 
to  found  a  Roman  Catholic  party ;  but  he  received  no  encouragement  in 
this  undertaking  either  from  the  conservatives,  intoxicated  by  their  half- 
victory,  or  from  the  good-will  of  the  clergy. 


296  THE  EVOLUTION   OF  FRANCE. 

In  the  spring  of  1891  appeared  the  famous  encyclical 
Rerum  Novarum.  Social  evolution  was  sketched  along- 
side of  political  evolution ;  to  tell  the  truth,  the  former 
was  much  the  more  ancient.  "Christian  socialism" 
had  for  a  long  time  made  recruits  among  the  French, 
and  its  progress  had  been  sufficiently  rapid  and  suffi- 
ciently important  to  lead  Monseigneur  Freppel,  MM. 
Lucien,  Brun,  Claudio  Jannet,  and  the  Due  de  Broglie 
to  join  together  for  the  formation  of  a  Roman  Catholic 
society  of  social  economy,  intended  to  counteract  the 
action  of  M.  de  Mun  and  his  partisans.^  Nowhere  in 
the  encyclical  Rerum  Novarum  is  there  to  be  found  "  a 
practical  solution  of  the  complex,  irritating,  and  pain- 
ful questions  which  constitute  what  is  called  socialism. 
The  Pope  therein  defends  inclividual  property,  inheri- 
tance, the  principle  of  the  liberty  of  transactions,  and 
even  the  independence  of  the  individual  with  regard 
to  the  State.  "2  But  the  fact  that  the  head  of  the 
Roman  Catholic  Church  should  dare  to  tread  upon  this 
dangerous  ground  was  a  sufficient  sign  of  the  times ;  on 
the  other  hand,  workingmen  were  taken  to  him,  and 
the  Vatican  welcomed  them  with  open  arms ;  Cardinal 
Lang^nieux,  Archbishop  of  Rheims,  organized  working- 
men's  pilgrimages.  In  1885  several  hundred  Christian 
employers  went  to  salute  the  Pope,  followed,  two  years 
later,  by  twelve  hundred  of  their  workmen.  In  1889 
and  1891  these  demonstrations  were  repeated,  and  in 
the  basilica  of  Saint  Peter,  M.  de  Mun  proclaimed  Leo 

1  It  is  to  be  noted  that  the  founders  of  this  society  had  all,  more  or  less, 
supported  the  doctrine  of  the  intervention  of  the  State:  Monseigneur 
Freppel,  in  1886,  had  demanded  it,  with  M.  de  Mun,  in  the  question  of 
regulating  the  hours  of  labor  in  workshops ;  M.  Chesnelong,  in  that  of  the 
prohibition  of  night  labor  for  women  and  children ;  M.  Claudio  Jannet  and 
M.  Keller,  in  that  of  the  establishment  of  obligatory  rest  on  Sunday. 

2  Eug.  Spuller,  L'j^volution  Sociale  et  Politique  de  l'^gli$e. 


THE  REPUBLIC  AND   THE  CHURCH.  297 

XIII.  the  " workingman's  Pope."  In  the  wise  and 
discreet  speech  with  which  he  replied  to  M.  de  Mun, 
Leo  XIII.  expressed  a  wish  for  "  a  certain  restoration 
of  the  moral  principle  in  problems  relating  to  the 
amelioration  of  the  social  condition  of  workingmen. "  ^ 
This  coincided,  as  M.  Spuller  remarks,  with  a  marked 
evolution  in  French  socialistic  writers.  Little  by  little 
they  withdrew  from  the  purely  economical  socialism  of 
Karl  Marx,  the  scientific  coloring  of  which  had  allured 
them  at  first,  and  which  after  all  was  reduced  to  the 
quest  of  immediate  and  strictly  practical  amelioration 
of  material  existence.  They  returned  to  a  more  general 
and  more  generous  conception  of  socialism,  that  which 
tends  "  to  the  realization  of  greater  amount  of  the  ideal 
in  the  establishment  of  a  society  which  shall  be,  as 
a  whole,  more  just,  more  enlightened,  and  more  fra- 
ternal." "It  is  in  vain  that  the  socialism  of  Karl 
Marx  offered  itself  to  the  masses  as  armed  with  all  the 
resources  of  the  most  pressing  argumentation  and  the 
most  rigorous  mathematical  calculations.  It  did  not 
speak  sufficiently  to  the  agitated  heart,  to  the  enthusi- 
astic mind,  of  the  laboring  masses  to  hold  them  attentive 
and  sympathetic  for  long."^ 

These  workingmen's  pilgrimages,  organized  to  hasten 
the  social  evolution  desired  by  Leo  XIII. ,  came  near 
ruining  the  political  revolution  which  he  was  endeavor- 
ing to  realize  at  the  same  time.  The  members  of  the 
"  Roman  Catholic  youth  "  had  accompanied  the  working- 
men  pilgrims  to  the  Vatican  in  1891.  The  ceremonies 
came  to  an  end  when  a  sort  of  Francophobe  riot  broke 
out  in  Rome.  A  very  slight  incident  provoked  it;  in 
the  course  of  a  visit  made  by  the  young  pilgrims  to  the. 

1  Eug.  Spuller,  U Evolution  Politique  et  Sodale  de  V^glise. 
*  Ibid. 


298  THE  EVOLUTION   OF  FRANCE. 

Pantheon  of  Agrippa,  where  stands  the  tomb  of  Victor 
Emmanuel,  one  of  them,  it  is  said,  wrote  in  the  visit- 
ora'  book  these  words:  "Long  live  the  Pope!"  Like 
a  fire  along  a  train  of  gunpowder  the  news  spread 
through  the  city  that  the  memory  of  Victor  Emmanuel 
had  been  insulted  by  the  French.  A  public  sheet, 
printed  as  if  by  enchantment,  and  whose  "  improvised  " 
numbers  were  fairly  snatched  from  hand  to  hand,  com- 
mented upon  the  fact  with  so  much  pleasure  and  zeal 
that  it  was  difficult  not  to  suspect  premeditation,  a 
deliberatel}''  planned  trick.  Not  only  in  Rome,  but  in 
all  the  cities  of  Italy,  there  was  an  explosion  of  anti- 
French  rage,  in  the  face  of  which  the  Paris  Cabinet  was 
somewhat  lacking  in  energy.  The  Minister  of  Public 
Worship,  by  a  letter  to  the  bishops,  interdicted  pil- 
grimages, for  the  time  being,  which  was  generally 
approved  of ;  but  one  would  have  liked  to  see  the 
Minister  of  Foreign  Affairs  speak,  at  the  same  time,  to 
the  representatives  of  King  Humbert  in  language  suited 
to  the  occasion. 

To  the  ministerial  missive,  couched  in  rather  curt 
terms,  Monseigneur  Gouthe-Soulard,  Archbishop  of 
Aix,  replied  by  a  document  so  violent  that  it  seemed  im- 
possible not  to  prosecute  him.  The  prelate  appeared,  on 
November  21, 1891,  before  the  first  chamber  of  the  Court 
of  Appeals  of  Paris,  and  was  condemned,  with  extenuat- 
ing circumstances,  to  pay  a  fine  of  three  thousand  francs. 
Cardinal  Richard  had  offered  him  the  hospitality  of  his 
palace.  Monseigneur  Gouthe-Soulard  received  the  con- 
gratulations and  the  allegiance  of  nearly  sixty  bishops. 
Never,  probably,  had  the  deplorable  state  of  mind  of 
the  French  Episcopal  body  asserted  itself  in  so  startling 
a  manner  ;  never  had  the  misunderstanding  engendered 
by  the  Concordat  been  more  clearly  apparent.     Incon- 


THE  REPUBLIC  AND   THE  CHURCH.  299 

siderate  expressions  were  noted  from  the  sober  and  aca- 
demical pen  of  Monseigneur  Perraud,  Bishop  of  Autun,i 
and  Monseigneur  Isoard,  Bishop  of  Annecy,  who  had 
been  the  first  to  give  his  adherence  to  the  declarations 
of  Cardinal  Lavigerie,  tried  to  establish  the  absolute 
independence  of  the  bishops  with  relation  to  the  civil 
power.  The  counter-shock  made  itself  felt  in  the 
Chamber,  which  discussed  (December  11, 1891)  a  query- 
as  to  the  "clerical  manoeuvres."  The  language  of 
some  of  the  deputies  was  equal  to  the  occasion,  and  one 
wondered  whether  pontifical  diplomacy  had  not  received 
a  supreme  check,  and  whether  anything  remained  of 
the  Archbishop  of  Algiers'  generous  enterprise  except 
the  memory  of  a  chimerical  hope,  ironically  belied  by  the 
course  of  events.  But  the  Pope  had  made  up  his  mind  to 
employ  patience,  gentleness,  and  obstinacy,  —  means  of 
action  which  almost  always  triumph  in  the  end  when  they 
are  enlisted  in  the  service  of  a  rational  and  timely  idea. 
Up  to  that  time,  the  upper  clergy  had  withstood  him 
with  a  merely  passive  resistance  ;  it  now  entered  upon 
the  path  of  open  resistance  ;  Cardinals  Desprez,  Arch- 
bishop of  Toulouse,  Place,  Archbishop  of  Rennes, 
Foulon,  Archbishop  of  Lyons,  Langenieux,  Archbishop 
of  Rheims,  Richard,  Archbishop  of  Paris,  drew  up  a  sort 
of  long  arraignment  against  republican  institutions, 
which  was  called  "the  Cardinals'  declaration,"  and 
which  was  made  public  on  January  22,  1892.  The 
recent  precepts  of  the  Holy  See  were  therein  combated, 

1  "  Beyond  the  prfetorium  where  j'ou  are  about  to  take  your  seat," 
wrote  Monseigneur  Perraud  to  the  Archbishop  of  Aix,  "  behind  those  mag- 
istrates who  will  be  not  a  little  surprised  to  see  you  appear  before  their  bar 
for  trial,  all  France  ^ill  stand.  It  is  to  her  that  you  will  speak."  At  the 
conclusion  of  the  affair,  Monseigneur  Gouthe-Soulard  published  a  book 
entitled  :  Mon  Proces,  mes  Avocats.  It  was  noticed  that  the  telegram  which 
he  sent  to  Cardinal  RampoUia  remained  unanswered. 


300  TEE  EVOLUTION  OF  FRANCE. 

not  in  form,  but  in  spirit.  The  reply  of  the  Sovereign 
Pontiff,  dated  February  16,  restored  the  question  to  the 
ground  whence  they  were  trying  to  remove  it.  "  Ac- 
cept the  Republic,  that  is  to  say,  the  established  power 
which  exists  among  you,"  it  said ;  "  respect  it ;  submit 
to  it  as  representing  the  power  which  comes  from  God. 
...  In  politics,  more  than  in  any  other  domain,  un- 
expected changes  come  about  .  .  .  ;  these  changes  are 
far  from  being  always  legitimate  in  their  origin ;  it  is 
even  difficult  for  them  to  be  so.  Nevertheless,  the 
supreme  standard  of  the  public  good  and  public  tran- 
quillity compels  the  acceptance  of  these  new  govern- 
ments, established  in  fact  in  the  place  of  the  previous 
governments  which  no  longer  exist.  Thus  the  ordinary 
rules  as  to  the  transmission  of  power  are  suspended, 
and  it  may  even  happen  that,  in  the  course  of  time, 
they  will  be  abolished." 

On  February  19,  Leo  XIII.  addressed  an  encyclical 
letter  to  the  Catholics  of  France  ;  on  the  very  day 
before,  a  new  question  had  come  up,  in  the  Palais- 
Bourbon  ;  the  declaration  of  the  cardinals  had  been 
noisily  debated  there,  the  Freycinet  Cabinet  had  faUen 
under  the  united  blows  of  the  radical  Left  and  the 
royalist  Right.  No  one  any  longer  doubted  that  we 
were  face  to  face  with  a  perfectly  matured  plan,  the  exe- 
cution of  which  would  be  prosecuted  with  inflexible  will, 
that  would  not  allow  itself  to  be  disheartened  by  any 
difficulty.  Nevertheless,  opposition  increased,  on  the 
Right  as  well  as  on  the  Left.  Cardinal  Richard  pub- 
lished a  pastoral  letter  in  opposition  to  the  views  of  the 
encyclical.  That  season,  there  were  contradictor}'  lect- 
ures in  some  of  the  churches;  they  caused  much  tumult.^ 

^  At  Saint-Merri  the  lectures  of  Father  Le  Moigne  on  "  the  solution  of 
pauperism,  Marxism,  possibilism,  nihilism,"  provoked  such  disorders  that 


THE  REPUBLIC  AND   THE  CHURCH.  301 

The  bishops  did  not  set  the  example  of  submission. 
They  knew  that  the  Pope  desired  to  see  them  abstain 
in  the  electoral  struggles.  Monseigneur  Baptifolier, 
Bishop  of  Mende,  wrote  to  the  priests  of  his  diocese 
recommending  them  to  exert  as  much  influence  as 
possible  on  the  votes  of  the  municipal  electors  who 
were  about  to  be  called  upon  to  choose  representatives. 
"  Understand  well,"  he  said,  "  that  if  a  candidate 
appointed  by  you  should  propose  and  get  adopted  an 
anti-religious  measure,  you  would  be  responsible  for 
that  measure  before  God,  before  the  Church,  before 
your  own  conscience,  and  you  would  be  forced  to  accuse 
yourself,  in  confession,  of  having  put  into  power  a  per- 
secutor of  the  Church.  "1  The  Archbishop  of  Avignon 
and  his  suffragans  published  a  collective  mandate,  in 
flagrant  violation  of  the  Concordat,  which  interdicted 
this  sort  of  demonstration ;  and,  finally,  a  fresh  inter- 
vention on  the  part  of  Leo  XIII.  became  necessary 
to  effect  the  dissolution  of  the  "  Union  of  Christian 
France,"  which  now  resisted  him  indirectly. 

On  the  Left,  men  felt  rather  disturbed  at  "having 
to  defend  the  political  staff,  without  having  to  defend 

it  became  necessary  to  suspend  them.  These  disorders  were  renewed  at 
Saint-Joseph,  and  also  in  many  provincial  towns,  at  Nancy,  Beauvais,  and 
Marseilles.  The  subjects  chosen,  in  general,  smacked  but  little  of  the 
religious  character. 

^  In  a  pamphlet  designed  for  propagandist  use,  the  same  prelate  had 
said :  "  Confessors  have  the  right  to  refuse  absolution  to  parents  who  do  not 
heed  this  prohibition,  and  who  shall  confide  their  children  to  those  schools 
of  perdition  disapproved  by  the  Church."  Monseigneur  Gouthe-Soulard 
wrote,  in  the  same  strain,  in  1892:  "You  must  not  forget,  my  very  dear 
brethren,  that  you  belong  to  the  Church  Militant.  Without  exaggeration, 
I  do  not  believe  that  it  has  ever  undergone  a  more  clever,  more  satanic, 
more  cunning  war."  These  last  lines  should  be  compared  with  those 
written  by  Monseigneur  Turinaz,  Bishop  of  Nancy:  "I  wonder  if  ever  a 
tyranny  at  once  so  odious  and  so  hypocritical,  so  absurd  and  so  dishonora- 
ble, has  been  forced  upon  a  Catholic  clergy  and  a  Catholic  country  in  the 
last  nineteen  centuries."    Such  exaggerations  confuse  the  imagination. 


302  THE  EVOLUTION  OF  FRANCE. 

republican  institutions,"  ^  which  ceased  to  be  attacked. 
The  new  converts  contributed  to  maintain  distrust  by 
their  exaggerations  of  language  and  the  pretensions 
which  they  displayed,  parading  the  zeal  of  a  neophyte 
for  the  Republic,  or  proclaiming  their  firm  intention 
to  work  at  its  transformation,  and  to  drive  beyond  its 
border  those  who  had  founded  it.  They  appealed  to 
universal  suffrage  and,  very  foolishly,  felt  surprised 
that  old  republicans  should  be  preferred  to  them,  or 
that  they  should  be  called  upon  for  a  few  proofs  of 
sincerity  and  a  little  service,  like  plain  soldiers. 

Little  by  little  calm  returned,  the  storm  abated,  and 
it  was  evident  that  pontifical  enterprise  had  strength- 
ened the  Republic,  and  dealt  the  last  blow  to  monarchi- 
cal hopes.  It  was  immediately  perceived  that  this 
enterprise  had,  at  the  same  time  and  without  solving 
them,  raised  several  vital  questions,  which  may  be 
briefly  summed  up  before  we  close  this  chapter.  There 
is  one  which  dominates  all  others.  When  Leo  XIII. 
declared  that  "  Catholics  ought  to  fight  for  truth  and 
virtue,  wherever  they  are  able,  and  associate  them- 
selves with  men  who,  although  full  of  uprightness  and 
honesty,  are  still  outside  the  Church,"  ^  did  the  Sover- 
eign Pontiff  lay  down  one  of  those  rules  of  conduct 
inspired  by  circumstances,  which  are,  so  to  speak,  pro- 
cedures of  parliamentary  tactics ;  or  did  he  formulate 
a  great  principle,  a  sort  of  new  dogma,  of  which  he  per- 
ceived the  necessity,  and  which,  moreover,  satisfied  the 
instincts  of  his  liberal  spirit  ?  But  in  that  case,  it  is 
no  longer  an  evolution,  it  is  a  revolution.  It  is  Roman 
Catholicism  suddenly  joining  Reform  ;  it  is  the  grand 
charter  of  emancipation  given  to  the  Church ;   it  is  the 

1  Eug.  Spuller,  L'^volution  Politique  et  Sociale  de  V^glise. 

2  Letter  to  the  Bishop  of  Grenoble. 


THE  BEPUBLIC  AND   THE  CHURCH.  303 

liberty  to  act,  almost  the  liberty  to  think  officially  ac- 
corded to  all  believers,  and  that  less  than  twenty-five 
years  after  the  Vatican  Council ;  it  is,  also,  the  door  of 
Roman  Catholicism  reopened  to  many  men  who  had 
withdrawn  from  it  with  regret,  in  the  belief  that  it 
was  decidedly  incompatible  with  the  century. 

Religions  pass  successively  through  three  states,  — 
superstition,  logic,  and  philosophy.  While  superstition 
reigns,  all  is  form,  words,  images,  minute  devotions, 
fragmentary  beliefs  ;  worship  appears  to  be  definitive, 
because  of  the  importance  which  is  attributed  to  it ; 
every  breach  of  its  prescriptions  seems  more  grave  than 
the  breach  of  the  moral  law  itself.  With  those  who 
understand  religion  in  that  way,  there  may  exist  a  cer- 
tain superficial  tolerance,  produced  by  natural  good 
nature  or  suavity  of  character,  but  intolerance  neces- 
sarily exists  in  the  background.  Men  are  generally 
very  well  satisfied,  and  conceive  a  glorious  idea  of  them- 
selves, when  they  pass  from  the  state  of  superstition  to 
the  state  of  logic.  The  thought  of  professing  a  rational 
religion,  compatible  with  their  exact  knowledge,  charms 
them  and  elevates  them  in  their  own  eyes.  In  reality, 
there  is  no  such  thing  as  a  rational  religion ;  the  Prot- 
estants, who  believe  in  the  incarnation  of  Jesus  Christ, 
—  God  made  man,  —  do  not  believe  anything  more  ra- 
tional, from  the  human  point  of  view,  than  the  Catho- 
lics, who  profess  that  this  incarnation  is  daily  renewed 
in  the  mass.  A  really  rational  religion  would  exclude 
all  idea  of  worship,  and  would  consist  only  in  a  set  of 
rules  for  upright  living.  Beyond  this,  one  attains  to 
the  serene  regions  of  philosophical  religion.  Those 
who  dwell  therein  take  care  not  to  appeal  to  their  rea- 
son, which  they  feel  to  be  weak,  vacillating,  imperfect ; 
they  think  that  the  grandeur  of  the  human  spirit  lies 


304  THE  EVOLUTION   OF  FRANCE. 

in  its  perpetual  effort  to  mount  towards  the  light,  and 
not  in  poor  results,  laboriously  amassed  ;  they  dare  not 
think  that  the  world  beyond  can  be  subjected  to  the  laws 
which  govern  humanity.  Worship,  for  them,  falls  into 
the  secondary  rank.  It  has,  no  doubt,  been  asserted 
that,  no  matter  how  lofty  the  intelligence  of  a  man,  no 
matter  how  Adgorous  his  genius,  no  matter  how  exten- 
sive his  acquirements,  he  remains  as  remote  from  the 
divinity  as  the  most  ignorant  and  the  least  gifted  of  his 
brethren;  he  has  not  approached  God,  they  say,  any 
more  than  one  approaches  the  sun  by  climbing  a  hill ; 
he  is  still  the  abject  being,  the  "  worm  of  earth  "  upon 
whom  the  Scriptures  lavish  humiliations,  and  to  whom 
they  recall  the  feebleness  of  his  nature.  But,  in  reality, 
science  is  a  divine  road  whereon  each  mile-stone  passed 
brings  us  nearer  the  Supreme  Being,  and  permits  us  to 
conceive  him  more  perfectly.  The  way  is  long,  but 
the  distances  traversed  may  count.  The  eye  of  the 
•learned  man  apprehends  and  perceives  that  which  the 
ordinary  man  neither  perceives  nor  comprehends.  His 
genius  elevates  him,  according  to  Saint  Augustine's 
strong  expression,^  "from  the  understanding  of  God's 
visible  works  to  that  of  invisible  grandeurs." 

Is  Christianity,  then,  about  to  claim  for  its  own  those 
men  who  have  received  from  it  their  inspiration  accord- 
ing to  the  spirit,  instead  of  recognizing  as  its  children 
only  those  who  take  part  in  the  celebration  of  its  mys- 
teries ?  Of  such  men,  particularly  in  France,  there  are 
legions. 2  Reason,  which  the  Frenchman  so  readily 
obeys,   has    finally    established    the    necessity   of    the 

1  The  City  of  God. 

2  The  Third  Republic  has  had  great  citizens  who  were  regarded  as 
adversaries  of  religion,  while  they  really  possessed  the  Christian  spirit  in 
the  highest  degree.  Among  these,  Auguste  Burdeau  deserves  to  be  men- 
tioned in  the  front  rank. 


THE  REPUBLIC  AND   THE  CHURCH.  305 

religious  sentiment.  Science  has  shown  that  it  is 
powerless  to  take  its  place.  If  one  glances  about  him, 
he  perceives  how  profound  is  the  religious  sentiment 
in  our  epoch.  Never  has  the  moral  sense  been  so  de- 
veloped, never  have  moral  principles  been  more  fully 
admitted  or  practised.  Is  all  this  the  preface  of  some 
new  form  of  religion,  or  is  Christianity  on  the  point  of 
catching  up  with,  by  a  forced  march,  audaciously  under- 
taken, those  popular  masses  which  are  plunging  into  the 
future  without  it  ?  A  most  interesting  question  !  In 
short,  the  point  is  to  discover  whether  the  spirit  of 
tolerance  is  going  to  act  upon  souls,  after  having  forced 
its  way  through  institutions ;  and  how  slowly  !  Plato  •; 
did  not  know,  and  "  in  the  ancient  republics  there  was 
not  a  head  of  the  State  who  even  imagined  that  it  was 
possible  to  incorporate  in  the  law  a  clause  which  gave 
citizens  the  right  of  exercising  whatever  religion  they 
preferred."  "  During  the  whole  duration  of  the  Roman 
domination,"  says  M.  Gaston  Boissier,  "I  see  not  a- 
single  wise  man,  were  he  a  sceptic  like  Pliny  the  Elder, 
a  free-thinker  devoid  of  all  prejudices  like  Seneca,  an 
honest  and  gentle  philosopher  like  Marcus  Aurelius, 
who  appears  to  have  suspected  that  equal  rights  might 
be  granted  to  all  the  religions  of  the  Empire."^  If  it 
has  taken  so  long  to  establish  tolerance  in  society,  it  is 
not  surprising  that  it  should  have  required  so  long  for 
it  to  take  possession  of  hearts.  We  have  returned  to 
the  epoch  of  the  edict  of  Milan,^  when  "  a  party  was 
formed  composed  of  moderate,  humane  persons,  friends 
of  religious  peace,  who  would  have  liked  to  have 
Christianity  included  in  that  sort  of  fusion  of  all 
creeds  which  had  come  about  at  Rome  after  the  Em- 

1  Gaston  Boissier,  La  Fin  du  Paganisme,  Vol.  I. 

2  Issued  by  Constantine  (June,  313). 


306  THE  EVOLUTION   OF  FRANCE. 

pire,"  1  and  for  which,  seeking  a  term  which  should 
befit  all,  the  word  divinitas  was  used. 

Here  then  is  a  first  point  :  will  evolution  unfold 
itself  even  to  the  end,  entailing  incalculable  conse- 
quences,^  or  will  it  constitute  only  a  generous,  Utopian 
attempt,  destined  to  miscarry?  Has  Leo  XHI.  thor- 
oughly attained  his  aim  in  France,  which  was  to  sepa- 
rate religion  and  politics?  Has  he  not,  rather,  separated 
religion  from  the  monarchy  only  to  invest  with  its  pos- 
session the  parliamentary  Republic?  The  Concordat, 
and  the  habits  which  have  taken  root  since  it  has  been 
in  force,  do  not  permit  of  a  veritable  emancipation  of 
religion,  such  as  has  been  effected  in  the  United  States. 
And  then,  in  the  United  States,  what  is  the  future  to 
be  ?  The  power  of  the  Roman  Catholics  there  has  in- 
creased to  such  a  degree  as  to  disturb  certain  classes  of 
citizens,  who  are  already  banding  together  to  root  it 
out.  Moreover,  the  liberals  are  not  unopposed  there  : 
the  Jesuits  are  hostile  to  them.  America  has  in  store 
for  our  descendants,  no  doubt,  the  same  surprises,  from 
a  religious  point  of  view,  that  she  has  caused  us,  from 
a  social  point  of  view.  Had  we  not  been  told  that  the 
social  question  could  not  spring  up  upon  that  happy 
soil? 

In  any  case,  one  fact  remains  :  the  majestic  effort 
made  by  Pope  Leo  XIII.  to  turn  his  Church  towards  a 

1  Gaston  Boissier,  La  Fin  du  Paganisme. 

*  Those  who  are  inclined  to  object  that  the  last  Boman  Catholic  dog- 
mas are  incompatible  with  this  evolution  of  the  pontifical  idea,  must  be 
reminded  that  the  Council  of  the  Vatican  (1870)  was  opened  and  suspended, 
but  not  closed,  by  Pius  IX.,  and  that  it  remains  for  it  to  complete,  by  the 
adoption  of  the  plan  De  Episcopis,  the  plan  De  Summo  Pontifice,  which 
has  placed  the  Sovereign  Pontiff  above  the  entire  body  of  bishops  and  of 
the  whole  church  (Eug.  Spuller,  L'^volution  Politique  et  Sociale  de  VEg- 
lise) .  It  is,  therefore,  possible  that  the  work  of  the  Council  may  be  resumed 
and  modified  in  the  future. 


THE  REPUBLIC  AND   THE  CHURCH. 


307 


new  world ;  the  French  Republic  has  served  as  the 
operating  cause.  This  subject  is,  evidently,  one  of  those 
which  the  historians  of  the  future  will  be  most  inclined 
to  discuss,  either  because  they  will  seek  therein  the 
origin  of  a  great  movement  whose  blossoming  they 
will  witness,  or  because  they  will  affirm  that  they  have 
discovered  the  causes  which  have  prevented  its  coming 
to  anything. 


308  THE  EVOLUTIOy   OF  FRANCE. 


CHAPTER  XI. 

EDUCATION. 

Primary  Instruction.  —  The  Results  of  Secularization.  —  The  Teacher. — 
Insufficiency  of  Moral  Instruction.  —  Grermanic  Pedagogy.  —  Schools: 
Primary,  High,  and  Professional.  —  Secondary  Instruction :  the  Impe- 
rial and  the  Monastic  Stamp.  —  Overdriving.  —  The  Education  of 
Character.  —  Schools  for  Girls.  —  University  Revival.  —  Students  and 
Professors.  —  The  Rights  of  the  State. 

The  reform  of  the  three  degrees  of  education  under- 
taken by  the  Third  Republic  presents  this  special  feat- 
ure, — that  its  unity  is  only  apparent.  The  aim  pursued, 
the  means  employed,  and  the  results  attained  essentially 
differ,  according  to  whether  it  is  a  question  of  primary 
education,  secondary  education,  or  higher  education. 
The  reform  of  primary  education  has  aroused  violent 
controversies,  and  has  necessitated,  on  the  part  of  the 
nation,  important  pecuniary  sacrifices ;  great  results 
were  expected  from  it,  which  have  been  slow  of  ac- 
complishment ;  in  consequence  of  their  not  having 
been  preceded  or  accompanied  by  an  equivalent  reform 
in  idea«  and  habits,  the  result  has  not  fully  answered 
the  expectations  of  those  who  instituted  the  law.  More- 
over, circumstances  have  transformed  the  school  ques- 
tion into  a  political  question,  and  thus  the  undertaking 
was  perverted  at  the  very  outset.  Secondary  education 
has  been  improved  after  a  series  of  gropings  and  of  ex- 
periments in  details.  The  competition  of  the  free  es- 
tablishments has,  perhaps,  been  of  the  greatest  service ; 
but  no  one  either  cherished  great  ambitions  for  it  or 
showed  audacious  generosit}'  towards  it.     And,  in  con- 


EDUCATION.  309 

elusion,  higher  education  has  undergone  a  radical  trans- 
formation which,  discreetly  but  resolutely  pursued,  was 
discerned  by  the  public  only  at  the  moment  when  it 
was  winding  up  the  reconstitution  of  the  regional  uni- 
versities- 
There  was  an  element  of  foolish  confidence  in  the 
ardor  with  which  the  republicans  undertook  the  reform 
of  primary  education.  In  a  famous  speech  made  at 
Belleville  on  August  12,  1881,  Gambetta  called  the 
school  "  the  seminary  of  the  future,"  "  That  thing 
whence  should  issue  forth  citizens  fully  qualified  to 
cope  with  the  difficulties  of  life,  and  prepared  also  for 
the  service  of  France  abroad."  All  those  who  toiled 
with  him  at  the  elevation  of  the  nation  shared  his  en- 
thusiasm ;  they  were  fond  of  repeating  to  themselves 
that  the  German  schoolmaster  had  paved  the  way  for 
avenging  Jena,  and  they  beheld  the  vision  of  the 
younger  generations  grouped  around  teachers  solely 
bent  upon  making  their  pupils  participants  in  their 
hopes  for  the  future,  upon  rendering  them  fit  for  the 
holy  tasks,  the  heavy  toils  which  seemed  to  be  in  store 
for  them.  In  order  to  execute  this  programme,  it  was 
necessary,  first  of  all,  to  effect  a  unity  of  thought  and 
feeling,  a  sort  of  "  collective  soul,"  which  should  be  that 
of  young  France.  At  that  moment,  religion  and  mon- 
archy were  too  closely  united  to  allow  of  the  Republic's 
confiding,  with  safety,  the  education  of  its  sons  to  the 
teaching  religious  orders ;  but,  on  the  other  hand,  re- 
ligious passions  were  too  greatly  overexcited,  the  ex- 
cesses of  some  Roman  Catholics  had  attracted  too  much 
attention  to  the  "clerical  peril,"  for  secularization  to 
take  place  with  that  calmness  and  deliberation  which 
were  fitting.     The  republicans   did   not   perceive   the 


810  THE  EVOLUTION   OF  FRANCE. 

danger  of  mixing  politics  and  education  ;  the  generous 
and  rather  Utopian  ideas  which  inspired  them  concealed 
this  danger  ;  they  did  not  take  sufficient  pains  to  main- 
tain their  school  law  above  the  quarrels  of  the  day. 

The  law  suppressed  the  "letter  of  obedience,"  —  a 
simple  certificate  delivered  by  the  head  of  a  religious 
body,  and  which  took  the  place  of  a  diploma  of  capacity 
for  the  recipient.  This  privileged  treatment  consti- 
tuted a  profound  injustice  towards  secular  institutions; 
it  is  astonishing  that  such  a  system  could  have  sub- 
sisted so  long.  The  Roman  Catholics  did  not  under- 
stand to  what  a  degree  the  letter  of  obedience  shocked 
the  most  legitimate  instincts  of  democracy;  it  would 
have  been  clever  on  their  part  to  accept  its  suppres- 
sion ;  the  energy  which  their  representatives  expended 
in  defending  the  principle  therein  involved  invited  re- 
taliation, and  augmented  animosity  to  such  a  degree 
that  the  majority  completely  expunged  from  the  school 
law  everything  that  had  reference  to  religion. ^  The 
adjustments  which  the  liberals  had  intended  to  intro- 

1  Passed  by  the  Chamber  in  1880,  it  was  amended  by  the  Senate.  Jules 
Simon  caused  the  words:  "Moral  and  ci%ic  instruction,"  to  be  replaced 
by  the  words :  "  Duty  towards  Gk)d  and  towards  the  Fatherland."  We  have 
mentioned  that  an  amendment  was  introduced,  with  a  view  to  allowing 
the  Departmental  Council  the  power  of  "  authorizing  the  ministers  of  the 
different  religious  denominations  or  their  delegates  to  give  religious 
instruction  in  the  schoolhouses,  on  Sunday,  or  the  other  vacation  days, 
and  once  a  week,  after  the  evening  school  session."  The  Chamber  rejected 
these  modifications,  and  the  Senate  was  compelled  to  yield  before  the 
expression  of  its  opinion,  and  give  it  up.  (See  the  preceding  chapter, 
"The  Republic  and  the  Church.")  A  number  of  teachers,  drawing  their 
authority  from  one  of  M.  Duvaux's  circulars,  dated  1882,  took  it  upon 
themselves,  in  the  C6tes-du-Nord,  to  teach  the  Catechism  in  school,  out  of 
class  hours.  When  questioned  on  this  subject,  in  November,  1891,  M.  Leon 
Bourgeois,  Minister  of  Public  Education,  declared  that  he  saw  nothing 
reprehensible  in  this ;  but  if  the  ecclesiastical  authorities  continued,  in 
certain  dioceses,  to  add  to  the  Catechism  chapters  concerning  electoral 
duties  and  the  degree  of  obedience  due  to  the  civil  authorities,  he  would 
prohibit  that  practice. 


LEON     GAMBETTA,     DEPUTY    AND    MINISTER,    AND    PRESIDENT    OF 
THE    CHAMBER    OF    DEPUTIES. 


:ub:7BRSit 


EDUCATION.  311 

duce  in  it  would  not,  perhaps,  have  sufficed  to  effect 
peace,  but  they  would  have  hastened  it ;  in  any  case, 
they  would  have  impeded  the  movement  in  favor  of 
free  schools,  and  kept  education  from  becoming  a  cause 
of  discord  in  the  bosom  of  the  nation.  In  short,  we 
must  not  lose  sight  of  the  fact  that  (as  we  have  said 
in  the  preceding  chapter),  if  the  French  are  not  devo- 
tees, still  they  do  not  admit  the  idea  of  an  education 
which  is  totally  devoid  of  religious  sense.  Thus  it 
came  about  that  a  great  many  of  them  sent  their  chil- 
dren to  free  schools,  although  they  did  not  approve  of 
the  end  aimed  at  by  the  founders  of  those  schools. 

In  1890-1891  there  existed  in  France  81,990  primary 
schools,  of  which  67,318  were  public  schools,  and  14,672 
were  private  schools.  Out  of  this  number  63,419  were 
secular,  and  18,571  were  schools  under  the  charge  of 
religious  bodies.  There  were  also  3899  public  schools 
under  the  charge  of  ecclesiastics.^  But,  on  October  1, 
1891,  the  time-limit  for  the  secularization  of  boys' 
schools  expired.  In  Parliament,  and  outside  it,  people 
were  curious  to  learn  the  results  of  the  secularization 
of  schools,  which  had  been  going  on  for  the  last  ten 
years.  An  inquiry  was  ordered;  the  documents  col- 
lected were  entrusted  to  a  committee  of  statistics, 
charged  with  interpreting  them,  and  drawing  from 
them  the  proper  conclusions.  The  report  of  that  com- 
mittee, drawn  up  by  M.  Levasseur,  member  of  the 
Institute,  referred  to  the  period  of  1879-1889.  In  the 
first  place,  it  was  ascertained  that  there  were  about 
200,000  more  pupils  registered  than  before ;  competi- 
tion will  always  prove  beneficial ;  but  the  struggle 
between  the  Church  and  the  State  had,  on  the  other 

1  The  whole  number  of  mixed  schools  (boys  and  girls)  was  19,380,  of 
which  13,472  were  kept  by  teachers. 


312  TUB  EVOLUTION  OF  FRANCE. 

hand,  resulted  in  the  disappearance  of  the  greater  part 
of  the  private  lay  schools :  about  1800,  containing 
100,000  pupils,  had  perished  during  that  period.  As 
for  the  secularized  schools,  they  represented  a  figure  of 
5063;  in  competition  with  them  2839  free  schools  of 
the  religious  bodies  had  sprung  up.  Before  seculariza- 
tion, the  5063  schools  counted  up  648,824  pupils ;  after 
secularization,  they  had  only  495,963,  showing  a  loss  of 
152,861  pupils,  while  the  recently  founded  free  schools 
had  gained  354,473.1 

Many  of  these  free  schools  have  been  founded  and 
continue  to  be  supported  by  men  who  are  mixed  up  in 
political  struggles,  or  by  associations  like  the  Society  for 
Education  and  Instruction,  whose  publications  suf- 
ficiently set  forth  their  spirit ;  they  have,  in  general,  a 
distinctly  anti-republican  character.  But  moral  in- 
struction is  there  given  under  the  religious  form,  which 
is  the  one  best  understood  by  the  masses ;  it  may  not 
be  impossible  to  teach  morals  apart  from  any  religious 
idea,  although  the  attempts  in  that  line,  so  far,  are  not 
at  all  encouraging  ;  but,  in  order  to  undertake  it,  with 
what  vigor  of  mind  must  not  one  be  endowed !  What 
extensive  knowledge  must  not  one  possess  !  Neverthe- 
less, that  is  what  is  required  of  very  young  persons, 
who  have  hardly  had  the  corners  smoothed  off  in  their 
passage  through  the  normal  school  for  teachers,  and 
who  would  hardly  be  in  a  state  themselves  to  receive 
the  very  delicate  instruction  which  they  are  entrusted 
with  giving  to  others.     In  order  to  build  the  schools 

1  The  principal  teacliing  orders  are :  the  Brothers  of  Christian  Schools, 
who  have  schools  in  751  localities  of  France ;  the  Brothers  of  Lamennais, 
who  have  337  (of  which  302  are  in  Bretagne,  where  they  give  instruction 
to  42,000  children)  ;  the  Marist  Brethren  (299)  ;  the  Brothers  of  Saint 
Gabriel  (124)  ;  the  Brothers  of  Saint- Viateur  (119) ;  the  Marianists  (So). 
{Anmiaire  de  la  Jeunesse,  1894.) 


EDUCATION.  313 

which  were  needed,  the  representatives  of  the  nation 
did  not  spare  the  public  money ;  ^  their  zeal  has  often 
found  expression  in  exaggerated  expenditures  and  use- 
less luxury  ;  but  no  one  would  dream  of  criticising  the 
"  educational  palaces  "  which  they  have  reared,  if  one 
felt  sure  that  the  said  palaces  served  to  form  the  citi- 
zens for  whom  Gambetta  longed.  But  it  was  not  enough 
to  build  schools,  nor  even  to  draw  up  programmes,  — 
it  was  necessary,  in  addition,  to  form  educators  ;  no 
one  thought  of  that,  or,  at  all  events,  no  success  has 
been  scored  in  that  direction ;  in  the  programmes,  a 
place  has  been  made  for  moral  and  civic  instruction, 
without  a  suspicion  that,  in  order  to  teach  patriotism 
and  honesty,  it  does  not  suffice  that  the  instructor 
should  be  merely  honest  and  patriotic. 

The  young  teachers  who  have  thronged  to  offer  their 
services  generally  possess  an  education  of  doubtful  uni- 
formity, a  superficial  judgment  which  easily  runs  into 
temerity,  an  incomplete  moral  culture,  and  a  profes- 
sional education  which  amounts  to  almost  nothing. 
"Too  hasty  studies,"  the  director  of  a  normal  school 
has  said,  "  are  fatally  superficial ;  no  assertion  of  the 
master  or  of  the  manuals  can  be  submitted  to  any 
serious  superintendence.  The  pupil  never  sees  more 
than  one  side  of  things,  the  one  which  is  presented  to 
him.  .  .  .  The  little  which  he  knows  about  a  question 
is,  for  him,  too  often,  the  whole  question  ;  thus  he  has 
a  tendency  inconsiderately  to  express  rash  opinions 
and  absolute  judgments  on  men  and  things.  In  the 
schoolroom  he  often  perpetrates  stupendous  follies,  in 
a  dogmatic  tone,  which  seems  to  defy  all  contradiction, 
and  it  is  pitiful  to  hear  him  express  extreme  opinions 

1  The  budget  of  Public  Education  in  1893  was  176,000,000  francs,  of 
Which  125,000,000  francs  were  for  primary  instruction. 


314  THE  EVOLUTION  OF  FRANCE. 

on  social,  political,  and  religious  matters,  which  have 
no  longer  any  mysteries  for  him,  after  he  has  read  a 
score  or  more  of  lines  in  some  wretched  little  journal."  ^ 
In  order  to  mitigate  the  over-severity  of  this  judgment, 
Ave  must  recall  the  fact  that  numerous  exceptions  do 
honor  to  the  corps  of  teachers ;  we  must  also  recall  the 
self-sacrifice  which  inspires  their  deeds.^ 

They  certainly  did  not  lack  good  advice.  "  Do  not 
believe,"  they  were  told,  "that  your  superiors  will 
weigh  you  by  the  weight  of  the  parchments  which  your 
pupils  have  won ;  attach  less  importance  to  winning  a 
diploma  or  a  certificate,  more  importance  to  good  in- 
stincts and  to  moral  education.  The  best  master  is 
not  he  who  adorns  himself  with  the  greatest  number  of 
successes  in  competitions ;  but  he  whose  school  has 
trained  the  largest  number  of  good  men."^  They 
were  frequently  exhorted  in  this  manner,  but  they  are 
not  brought  up  in  a  way  to  render  them  capable  of 
understanding  it,  still  less  of  putting  it  into  practice  ; 
always,  and  in  spite  of  everything,  they  retain  the  im- 
pression that  they  have  a  political  task  to  fulfil ;  that 
once  provided  with  a  post,  they  will  be  obliged  to  fight 
^against  certain  influences,  to  defend  certain  ideas ;  in- 
stead of  the  word  "secular,"  signifying  neuter,  non-con- 
fessional, it  has  acquired,  when  the  primary  school  is  in 
question,  the  sense  of  anti-religious,  so  that  "  a  school 
ceases  to  be  secular  if  the  name  of  God  is  uttered 
there." ^ 

1  Le  programme  des  Scales  Normales,  by  E.  Devinat,  director  of  the 
Normal  School.     {Revue  Pddagogique,  Aout,  1892.) 

2  It  is  well  known  that  it  was  the  teachers  themselves  who  demanded 
the  suppression  of  exemption  from  military  service  by  which  they  profited. 

2  Advice  to  Teachers,  taken  from  a  Departmental  School  Bulletin. 
*  Le  Temps,  October  4,  1894.    It  is  comprehensible  that  things  will 
change  only  when  the  prefects  shall  have  been  deprived  of  the  power  of 


EDUCATION.  315 

The  adversary  cherishes  the  same  perverted  judg- 
ment; everything  good  and  useful  which  the  school  law 
contains  has  heep.  forgotten  :  the  principle  of  compulsory 
and  gratuitous  attendance  which  it  consecrates,  and 
which  is  so  strictly  in  conformity  with  the  aspirations 
of  democracy;  the  wisely  settled  programmes,  that  ar- 
dent will  to  act  well  which  animated  the  reformers, 
their  care  to  soften  transitions  by  secularizing  the 
schools  only  little  by  little,  —  all  have  been  forgotten. 
Everything  has  disappeared  before  the  politico-religious 
controversy  which  the  law  stirred  up,  and  behind  which 
have  taken  shelter  all  the  rancors,  all  the  hatreds  of 
the  past :  only  one  thing  has  been  seen  in  the  law,  — 
the  amendments  which  are  not  there. 

The  "moral  and  civic"  instruction  which  it  insti- 
tuted has  intrinsically  nothing  anti-religious  about  it. 
Matthew  Arnold,  the  celebrated  English  writer,  relates 
how,  while  visiting  the  communal  schools  of  Paris,  he 
was  present  at  the  customary  examination  which  the 
master  applies  to  very  young  children :  ^  "To  what  do 
we  owe  this  beautiful  schoolroom,  these  benches,  these 
pretty  pictures?"  In  place  of  the  traditional:  "To 
God,"  the  pupil  replies  in  more  precise  words:  "To 
the  Fatherland."  Arnold  withdrew  in  surprise,  admir- 
ing the  antique  simplicity  of  this  teaching.  Who  can 
maintain  that  the  disappearance  of  the  word  "  God " 
here  corresponds  to  an  impious  thought  ?  But  when 
it  is  a  question  of  explaining  to  the  child  his  duties 
"towards   his   family,  towards   servants,  towards  our 

appointing  teachers,  and  the  inspectors  of  academies  shall  have  been 
emancipated  from  the  guardianship  of  the  prefects.  Until  that  time,  the 
teacher  will  be  chosen  for  motives  other  than  scholastic,  and  will  remain 
a  political  agent. 

1  Programme  of  the  intermediate  course  (9-11  years) ,  and  the  upper 
course  (11-13  years). 


316  THE  EVOLUTION   OF  FRANCE. 

equals,"  or  "the  elements  of  social  morals,  as  of 
justice,  of  charity,  of  fraternity,"  ^  the  master  finds 
himself  embarrassed.  Therefore,  in  the  detailed  pro- 
grammes of  the  sections,  the  words  :  "  Duties  towards 
God,"  have  been  discreetly  replaced.  Permission  being 
thus  given,  the  schoolmaster  is  afraid  to  make  use  of 
it :  his  teaching  would  be  facilitated  only  if  he  could 
take  God  as  the  centre  of  his  reasoning.  But,  admit- 
ting that  his  personal  convictions  do  not  deter  him,  his 
self-interest  prohibits  it :  he  is  afraid  of  compromising 
himself  and  confines  himself  to  reading  two  or  three 
phrases  out  of  some  text-book  or  other  ;  they  fall,  cold, 
formal,  dead,  so  to  speak,  into  the  child's  mind,  and 
remain  sterile  there.  It  may  be  said  that  at  this  mo- 
ment, in  France,  moral  instruction  hardly  exists  in  the 
public  schools  ;  an  indirect,  but  valid  proof  of  this  is  to 
be  found  in  the  criminal  statistics.  While  inaugurat- 
ing, with  a  remarkable  speech,  a  recent  international 
sociological  congress,  Sir  John  Lubbock,  Chancellor  of 
the  University  of  London,  and  member  of  the  House  of 
Commons,  recalled  the  great  educational  efforts  accom- 
plished by  England  since  1870,  and  very  legitimately 
attributed  to  them  the  improvement,  which  he  took 
pleasure  in  acknowledging,  in  criminal  statistics.  "The 
average  number  of  persons  ordinarily  in  our  prisons," 
he  said,  "  has  fallen  from  12,000  to  5000.  The  annual 
average  of  persons  condemned  to  prison  for  grave 
crimes  has  fallen  from  3000  to  800.  With  regard  to 
crimes  committed  by  young  persons,  the  result  is  sur- 
prising, and  the  annual  number  of  young  persons 
condemned  has  fallen  from  14,000  to  5000."  It  is  im- 
possible to  misconstrue  the  close  relation  proved  by 

1  Programme  of  the  intermediate  course  (9-11  years),  and  the  upper 
course  (11-13  years). 


EDUCATION.  317 

these  figures  between  education  and  criminality.  They 
are  of  a  nature  to  rejoice  those  who  believe  in  the 
beneficent  influence  of  popular  education,  upon  habits 
and  ideas ;  but  we  are  forced  to  admit,  at  the  same  time, 
that  French  criminal  statistics  prove  an  alarming  in- 
crease in  the  number  of  crimes  and  misdemeanors,  es- 
pecially of  those  committed  by  very  young  persons,  so 
that,  "  far  from  agreeing  to  celebrate  and  bless,  as  in 
England,  the  diffusion  of  education,  many  minds  have 
come  to  doubt  its  virtue,  and  others,  more  violent,  to 
denounce  it  even  as  a  scourge."  ^ 

Must  God  be  reinstated  in  the  primary  school  ?  The 
question  has  been  timidly  put ;  ^  no  reply  to  it  has  as  yet 
been  made ;  but  it  is  doubtful  whether  the  reply  will  be 
in  the  negative.  Little  by  little,  the  public  are  begin- 
ning to  see  that  this  question  has  nothing  to  do  with 
that  of  the  secularization  of  the  teaching  corps.  The 
religious  orders,  once  ejected  from  the  schools,  will  not 
return  to  them;  but  people  are  beginning  to  perceive 
that  everything  in  their  pedagogical  outfit  is  not  suit- 
able for  expulsion,  and  that  even  if  the  time  has  come 
to  dispense  with  their  assistance,  it  will  be  more  diffi- 
cult to  dispense  entirely  with  their  doctrines. 

It  is  not  alone  the  system  of  moral  teaching,  but  also 
the  system  of  general  teaching  wliich  has  produced  a 
certain  disenchantment;  here,  it  is  true,  the  evil  is  less 
and  the  remedy  more  within  reach.  Too  much  has  been 
expected  from  the  mere  contact  of  science,  from  the 
beatific  contemplation  of  nature,  not  only  for  the  train- 
ing of  the  pupils,  but  also  for  the  preparation  of  the 
teachers.     There  has  been  an  excess  of  museums,  of 

1  Le  Temps,  October  3,  ISM. 

2  See  M.  Brunetiere,  Instruction  et  Education.  (Revue  des  Deux 
Mondes,  1895.) 


318  THE  EVOLUTION   OF  FRANCE. 

monographs ;  this  gift  of  pedantic  Germany  is  not 
readily  adaptable  to  the  French  spirit,  which  is  fitted 
to  feel  the  influence  of  ideas  and  of  men  far  more  than 
that  of  things.  Without  admitting,  with  M.  Francisque 
Bouillier,  that  "the  pupils  before  1871  knew  as  much  as 
those  who  have  succeeded  them,  if  not  more  than  the 
latter,  since  the  reign  of  pedagogy,"^  one  wonders 
whether  they  did  not  understand  better  that  which 
was  taught  them,  and  if  the  few  notions  very  irregu- 
larly implanted  in  their  minds  did  not  germinate  there 
more  readily  than  is  possible  to  the  carefully  labelled 
and  catalogued  notions  with  which  they  are  stuffed 
nowadays. 

As  for  nature,  it  does  not  exercise  a  direct  and  im- 
mediate influence  upon  the  child  any  more  than  does  sci- 
ence. The  human  soul  is  covered  with  a  sort  of  animal 
varnish,  of  which  it  must  first  be  divested.  "  Some  even- 
ing, take  several  of  your  pupils,"  writes  M.  Buisson,  the 
very  distinguished  director  of  primary  education,  "  a  few 
paces  beyond  the  last  house  in  the  village,  at  the  hour 
when  the  sounds  of  toil  and  of  life  die  away,  and  make 
them  raise  their  eyes  to  the  starry  sky.  They  have 
never  seen  it;  they  have  never  been  struck  with  that 
thought  of  innumerable  worlds,  and  of  the  eternal  order, 
the  eternal  movement  of  the  universe.  Arouse  them 
to  these  new  ideas!  ..."  These  are  beautiful  illu- 
sions. To  be  impressed  with  the  thought  of  the  eternal 
order  of  things,  one  must  have  already  thought  much 
and  learned  much.  Another  thing  which  shows  that 
we  have  been  on  the  wrong  road  is  the  deplorable 
apathy  into  which  those  who  have  been  most  assiduous 
in  their  attendance  upon  school,  and  who  have  seemed 

1  M.  Fr.  Bouillier,  La  Pddagogie  et  les  Pedagogues.  {Correspondant, 
August  25,  1891.) 


EDUCATION.  319 

bo  profit  most  by  its  instruction,  fall  after  school.  ^  One 
must  avoid  making  his  observations  upon  the  effects  of 
the  school  law  in  the  cities,  on  the  children  of  working- 
men,  who  live  in  conditions  where  the  opportunities  for 
self -instruction  are  already  more  numerous,  and  where 
education  is  more  appreciated.  It  is  in  the  little  towns, 
the  villages,  the  hamlets,  that  the  consequences  must  be 
studied.  The  peasants,  after  all,  represent  the  great 
mass  of  the  population ;  and  if  they  remain  in  igno- 
rance, while  the  other  classes  of  citizens  become  edu- 
cated, a  profound  fissure  will  be  made  in  the  very  heart 
of  the  nation.  But  there  is  a  fact  which  strikes  all  im- 
partial minds :  the  education  which  is  so  generously 
disseminated  does  not  penetrate  the  rural  districts. 
The  children  finish  their  lessons,  and  even  receive  a 
certificate  of  having  completed  their  studies,  but  they 
make  upon  those  who  examine  them  the  impression  of 
a  pedagogical  fiasco.  One  feels  that  they  have  retained, 
that  they  have  not  comprehended,  and  what  they  have 
retained,  they  forget  as  soon  as  school  is  over.  Ought 
we  not  to  return  to  those  courses  of  adult  education  in- 
stituted by  the  Convention,  and  should  not  the  mission 
of  the  schoolmaster  in  every  commune  be  to  give  such 
a  lesson,  once  a  week,  for  the  citizens,  without  distinc- 
tion of  age  or  of  sex  ?  It  is  sad  to  think  that,  after  the 
lapse  of  a  hundred  years,  we  are  still  at  that  point.  No 
one  reads  books ;  no  one  reads  anything  but  newspapers. 
There  is  an  absolute  famine  of  lectures  ;  the  rural  mu- 
nicipalities do  not  dream  of  organizing  any  even  on 
technical  subjects  of  immediate  utility. 

Alongside    of   primary  instruction,    higher   primary 

1  Since  these  lines  were  written,  a  congress  has  been  held  at  Havre 
(September,  1895),  with  a  view  of  studying  the  organization  of  education 
for  adults. 


320  THE  EVOLUTION   OF  FRANCE. 

instruction  has  been  created,  almost  complete.^  "  It  is 
not  college  degenerated,"  said  M.  Ch.  Dupuy,  in  one  of 
his  ministerial  circulars,  "but  school  perfected.  The 
question  is,  to  associate  a  complement  of  general  in- 
struction with  a  beginning  of  professional  instruction." 
The  programmes  for  it  have  been  drawn  up  in  a  manner 
to  respond  to  this  happy  definition.  Modern  history, 
commercial  geography,  living  languages,  information  as 
to  common  law  and  political  economy,  book-keeping, 
and  some  manual  occupations,  are  ingeniously  super- 
posed in  the  programme  of  the  primary  school.  The 
probable  destiny  of  the  children  who  frequent  these 
schools  is,  "  to  fulfil  some  one  of  the  numerous  average 
employments  which  agriculture,  commerce,  manufact- 
ures, offer  to  the  toilers,  with  the  prospect  of  a  more  or 
less  easy,  but  always  modest  position. "  ^  In  1891,  2353 
boys  and  1240  girls  presented  themselves  for  scholar- 
ships at  the  upper  primary  schools  ;  in  1893,  2705  boys 
and  1265  girls.  In  1889,  7869  pupils  finished  the 
schools  for  boys  ;  a  detailed  abstract  permits  us  to 
verify  the  fact  that  the  various  professions  chosen  by 
these  7869  boys  were  thoroughly  in  keeping  with  the 
object  aimed  at.  About  20  per  cent  went  into  trade,  27 
into  manufactures,  7  into  agriculture,  6  into  teaching ; 
3  per  cent  went  into  banks,  1^  into  railways,  2  into  the 
army,  4  into  the  administration  ;  7  per  cent  passed  into 
the  special  preparatory  schools  for  various  professions. 
For  a  moment  it  had  been  feared  that  the  pupils  of  the 
upper  primary  schools  would  go  to  swell  the  number, 
already  very  great,  of  candidates  for  employment  under 
the  State.     In  1889,  out  of  7869  only  294  followed  that 

1  It  now  numbers  236  schools  and  528  complementary  courses.    The 
upper  primary  schools  were  reorganized  by  the  decree  of  January  21, 1893. 

2  Ch.  Dupuy,  Circular  of  1895. 


EDUCATION.  321 

path.  Hence  that  fear  was  not  justified  ;  there  was 
cause  for  congratulation.  It  furnished  the  proof  that 
the  upper  primary  school  answers  to  a  need,  and  that 
it  has  been  organized  in  the  proper  manner. 

As  a  municipal  school  committee  has  been  instituted 
in  each  commune  to  superintend  and  encourage  school 
attendance,  so  a  committee  of  patrons  has  been  insti- 
tuted for  each  upper  primary  school,  whose  office  it  is 
to  watch  over  the  material  interests  of  the  scholars  and 
the  good  discipline  of  the  school  itself.  Therein  lies  a 
complete  embryo  of  organization,^  the  development  of 
which  will  render  the  greatest  services,  if  the  thought 
which  gave  birth  to  it  is  not  departed  from.  The  upper 
primary  school  can  be  made  a  centre  of  culture  which 
will  play  the  part,  in  many  places,  that  the  primary 
school  has  not  understood  how  to  fill,  or  been  able  to 
fill.  An  experiment  which  is  useless  and  dangerous  if 
it  is  to  be  generalized,  but  interesting  if  it  remains 
unique,  was  made  in  1888.  Twenty-two  young  men, 
from  fourteen  to  sixteen  years  of  age,  chosen  from  the 
best  pupils  in  the  upper  primary  schools  of  Paris,  were 
placed  in  a  special  class  of  the  Charlemagne  Lyceum, 
to  receive  a  classical  education  ;  the  object  was  to 
ascertain  whether  it  was  possible  for  young  men  to 
prepare  in  three  years  for  the  degree  of  Bachelor  of 
Letters.  Moreover,  the  city  of  Paris  has  created  at  the 
College  RoUin  scholarships  for  outside   students,    es- 


1  It  is,  unhappily,  certain  that,  in  spite  of  the  progress  accomplished, 
everything  in  France  is,  more  or  less,  superficial.  The  French  feel  the 
need  of  external  harmony  rather  than  of  real  progress.  A  minister  thinks 
he  has  done  great  things  when  he  has  written  numerous  circulars ;  and 
official  intelligence  too  often  indicates  as  accomplished  that  which  has 
only  been  decided  upon.  In  democratic  times,  the  really  rapid  and  pro- 
found results  are  obtained  by  the  efforts  of  collective  bodies  formed  out- 
side of  politics  and  of  functionaries. 
Y 


322  THE  EVOLUTION   OF  FRANCE. 

pecially  reserved  for  the  picked  pupils  from  the  upper 
primary  schools. 

By  the  side  of  upper  primary  instruction,  but  having 
more  than  one  point  of  contact  with  it,  professional 
instruction  waxes  strong.  The  law  of  December  11, 
1880,  regulated,  under  the  name  of  manual  schools  of 
apprenticeship,  the  public  or  free  schools  founded  with 
a  view  to  developing  technical  knowledge  in  young 
men  who  intend  to  enter  manual  professions,  and  as- 
similated to  them  the  upper  primary  schools  in  which 
exist  courses  or  classes  of  professional  instruction. 
People  thought  they  had  noticed  that  the  value  of  the 
workman,  in  almost  all  the  trade-guilds,  had  a  tendency 
to  degenerate.  It  was  this  which  led  the  public  powers 
to  take  up  this  very  important  question.  The  State 
created  three  national  professional  schools,  at  Voiron, 
Vierzon,  and  Armentieres  (1886-1887).  Many  manu- 
facturing cities  had  forestalled  it ;  that  is  what  gives 
to  this  instruction  a  thoroughly  special  character,  and 
assures  to  it  a  fertile  future. ^  The  impulse  has  been 
chiefly  local ;  old  foundations  have  been  developed,  — 
like  the  famous  Eeoles  de  la  Martiniere,  at  Lyons,  cre- 
ated by  the  legacy  of  General  Martin,  who  was  born  at 
Lyons  in  1735,  and  died  at  Lucknow  in  1800,  after 
a  peculiar  life;  or  the  Chambers  of  Commerce  have 
taken  action,  —  such  was  the  case  with  the  French 
school  of  hosiery,  founded  at  Troyes,  in  1888 ;  or  even 
individual  enterprise  has  been  displayed,  —  the  principal 
of  the  College  of  Saumur  has  succeeded  in  this  manner, 

1  These  schools  were  under  the  supervision  of  the  Ministry  of  Com- 
merce and  the  Ministry  of  Public  Education.  The  law  of  1882  concerning 
finances  settled  that  the  upper  primary  professional  schools  which  have 
industrial  and  commercial  sections  should  be  under  the  jurisdiction  of  the 
Ministry  of  Commerce  and  should  take  the  name  of  Practical  Schools  of 
Commerce  and  Industry. 


EDUCATION,         '  323 

in  creating,  at  his  own  expense,  in  connection  with  his 
college,  an  industrial  school.  Hence  these  schools  pos- 
sess that  which  is  generally  lacking  in  our  public  educa- 
tional institutions,  —  diversity.  They  avoid  that  mania 
for  unity,  uniformity,  which  has  paralyzed  so  many 
efforts  and  so  much  good-will.  The  danger  is,  that  by 
dint  of  regulations,  decrees,  and  circulars,  they  may, 
eventually,  be  rendered  more  and  more  like  each  other, 
and  deprived  of  all  their  elasticity. 

A  large  number  of  private  societies  aid  in  the  distri- 
bution of  instruction.  There  are  :  the  Society  for  Ele- 
mentary Education,  founded  in  1815  by  Carnot ;  the 
Polytechnic  and  Philotechnic  Associations,  which  date, 
the  one  from  1830,  the  other  from  1848 ;  the  French 
Union  of  Young  People,  created  in  1875 ;  the  Academ- 
ical Society  of  Book-keeping,  of  Marseilles ;  the  Philo- 
mathical  Society  of  Bordeaux,  created  in  1808 ;  the 
Industrial  Society  of  Amiens ;  the  Society  for  Profes- 
sional Education,  of  the  Rhone ;  the  Circle  of  Commer- 
cial Studies,  of  Limoges,  and  many  others.  Never  will 
these  societies  be  too  numerous  or  sufficiently  active. 
It  is  of  importance  that  the  old  countries  of  Europe 
should  cross  a  difficult  pass.  The  knowledge  which  the 
least  of  citizens  possesses  elsewhere  is  not  yet  suffi- 
ciently complete  or  disseminated  with  them.  Much 
science  elevates,  a  very  little  science  intoxicates.  If 
popular  education  is  not  to  be  pushed  further,  all  that 
will  have  been  accomplished  is  to  excite  cupidity,  to 
inflame  hatreds,  and  to  lead  souls  astray. 

When  the  University  of  France  finally  accepted  the 
system  of  competition  for  its  establishments  of  second- 
ary education,  and  when,  setting  itself  face  to  face  with 
the  religious  establishments,  it  said  to  them  :   "  I  will 


324  THE  EVOLUTION  OF  FRANCE. 

take  your  pupils  away  from  you  by  doing  better  than 
you,"  it  won  one  of  those  victories  over  self  which  lie  at 
the  root  of  all  revivals,  and  which  authorize  all  hopes. 
Many,  nevertheless,  remained  sceptical,  and  wondered 
how  the  University  would  manage  to  reform  itself,  — 
a  condition  indispensable  for  conflict  and  triumph. 

The  University  is  a  secular  body  founded  by  Napo- 
leon in  view  of  a  precise  and  petty  task,  —  that  of  plac- 
ing the  young  men  of  a  whole  country  in  the  same 
harness.  Its  founder  was  not  content  with  giving  it 
regulations  ;  he  fabricated  for  it  a  state  of  mind,  which, 
for  an  association,  is  the  crowning  iilipediment  to  all 
progress,  to  all  evolution.  He  breathed  into  it  that 
spirit  of  hierarchy  which  renders  obedience  passive  and 
command  brutal,  and  assigned  to  it  a  desperately  narrow, 
uniform,  and  flat  road,  wherein  to  move.  He  installed 
it  under  the  shadow  of  his  protecting  power,  habituat- 
ing it  to  act  only  at  his  order,  and  assuring  to  it  the  men- 
tal repose  which  irresponsibility  brings.  The  fascination 
exercised  by  Napoleon's  genius ;  his  simple,  if  not  noble, 
conception  of  education  ;  the  great  lassitude  which  the 
revolutionary  drama  left  in  its  wake  ;  and,  in  conclusion, 
old  habits  of  monastic  rigidity,  of  sombre  discipline, 
and  of  preventive  imprisonment,  —  had  as  their  result 
that  this  plan  was  understood  and  realized,  point  by 
point.  Of  all  the  imperial  institutions  no  other  received 
a  deeper  and  more  indelible  impress  from  its  founder. 
It  may  be  said  that  the  destiny  of  France  would  have 
been  modified  had  her  pedagogy  been  different.  The 
establishments  of  secondary  instruction  have  fulfilled 
their  programmes  and  broken  the  successive  genera- 
tions which  have  been  entrusted  to  them.  The  govern- 
ing classes  have  displayed  the  most  complete  inability 
not  only  to  direct  the  country,  but  even  to  direct  them- 


EDUCATION.  325 

selves.  That  formidable  lesson,  the  war  of  1870,  was 
needed  to  awaken  the  nation,  to  rouse  it  from  its  torpor, 
to  restore  to  it  that  sense  which  nothing  any  longer 
imparted  to  it,  —  virile  life,  the  art  of  willing  and  of 
action. 

In  the  history  of  the  doctrines  of  education  which  our 
grandsons  will  write,  the  colorless  strangeness  of  the 
period  which  is  now  coming  to  an  end  will  appear  with 
far  more  distinctness  than  it  appears  to  our  eyes.  It  will 
be  explained  only  by  the  disorders  which  scientific  dis- 
coveries have  wrought  in  the  conditions  of  the  material 
life  of  individuals,  and  also  by  the  slow  yet  incessant 
rising  of  the  democratic  tide  which  has  hypnotized 
minds  and  disturbed  ideas.  Otherwise,  how  are  we  to 
conceive  of  this  indifference  with  regard  to  the  train- 
ing of  man,  when  we  know  that  upon  that  training 
depends  the  future  of  the  nation  and  the  greatness  of 
the  race  ?  One  can  easily  understand  that  the  Middle 
Ages  should  have  been  on  the  point  of  erecting  into  a 
pedagogical  maxim  the  scorn  of  the  body,^  since  their 
tendency  was  to  place  the  ideal  of  life  beyond  the  limits 
of  this  world,  and  to  offer  eternal  good  things  as  the 
supreme  goal  to  the  efforts  of  the  living.  But  that,  in 
an  age  when  competition  is  so  sharp  and  so  universal, 
when  all  forces  are  needed  in  order  to  succeed,  when 
life  is  incessantly  compared  to  a  battle,  a  whole  portion 
of  the  human  being  should  be  neglected ;  that  the  aim 
should  be  only  to  equip  the  mind,  without  steeling  the 
character,  or  developing  the  corporeal  balance,  —  this, 
indeed,  is  calculated  to  daze  the  imagination. 

And  yet  so  it  is.  No  one,  for  a  space  of  many  years, 
perceived  that  the  Lyceum  was  an  honest  nursery  of 

1  But  it  is  well  known  how  virile  was  the  education  of  the  knights  who 
were  the  "  governing  "  classes  of  those  days. 


326  THE  EVOLUTION   OF  FRANCE. 

conscientious  routine  officials,  condemned  to  mediocrity, 
made  to  be  led.  Those  who  occupied  themselves  with 
pedagogy  did  not  seem  to  suspect  that  anything  could 
be  done  about  it ;  they  published  incredibly  empty 
works,  without  inspiration,  without  genius,  without 
even  originality,  wherein  the  anxiety  to  discipline,  to 
break,  to  conquer,  was  exclusively  displayed. ^  When, 
in  England,  was  accomplished  that  marvellous  trans- 
formation of  scholastic  education  which  is  the  prime 
and  fundamental  cause  of  all  the  aggrandizement  of 
power  which  the  British  Empire  has  enjoyed  in  recent 
times,  no  one  in  France  dreamed  of  investigating  the 
secret  of  it.  A  few  isolated  appeals  had,  it  is  true, 
rung  out  here  and  there,  but  no  one  would  see  in  these 
manifestations  anything  more  than  the  complaint  of  a 
dreamer,  or  the  fantastic  fears  of  a  wild  enthusiast. 

Nearly  everybody,  in  the  universities,  was  satisfied 
with  his  lot.  The  professors  already  possessed  —  and 
the  same  trait  most  honorably  distinguishes  them  to-day 
—  unbounded  devotion,  absolute  dignity  of  life,  and  the 
consciousness  that  they  were  toiling  at  a  thankless  but 
noble  task.  They  suffered  less  from  the  slenderness  of 
their  means  than  from  their  lack  of  consideration ;  if 
they  could  not,  of  themselves,  rise  to  a  conception  of 
their  pedagogical  part  superior  to  the  current  of  ideas 
which  was  bearing  them  along,  they  at  least  preserved 
a  certain  independence  of  judgment ;  they  also  pre- 
served certain  democratic  preferences  mingled  with 
some  habits  of  mind  which  were  rather  censorious,  and, 
at  times,  somewhat  Voltairian. ^ 

Such  was  the  staff  which  the  Third  Republic  found 
in  office,  and  whose  sympathies  it  cost  her  no  trouble 

^  See  the  work  of  Monseigneur  Dupanloup,  De  I' Education. 
2  See  Victor  de  Laprade,  L'Education  Homicide. 


EDUCATION.  327 

to  win.  As  for  the  lyceums  and  colleges,  they  shared 
in  the  general  dilapidation  of  the  scientific  establish- 
ments. It  is  true  that  grand  and  unpractical  build- 
ings had  been  erected  here  and  there ;  but  behind  the 
cut-stone  facades  the  cabinets  of  physics  remained 
empty,  the  chemical  laboratories  were  deserted.^ 

First  of  all,  programmes  were  attended  to.  Second- 
ary instruction  had  long  been  uniform  in  France ;  it 
included  the  study  of  Greek  and  Latin,  ended  with 
the  class  in  philosophy,  and  had  as  its  sanction  the 
degree  of  Bachelor  of  Letters.  In  1852  what  was 
called  bifurcation  was  created.  Thus  those  pupils 
who  finished  the  third  degree,  and  who  were  more  espe- 
cially gifted  in  the  scientific  line,  could  take  the  degree 
of  Bachelor  of  Sciences,  the  goal  of  their  studies,  in 
two  years  instead  of  three.  In  1863  M.  Duruy  insti- 
tuted special  secondary  instruction.  It  has  been  said 
of  the  famous  minister  that  he  was  "  a  precursor  of  the 
Republic "  :  and,  in  point  of  fact,  by  virtue  of  his 
belief  in  progress,  of  his  conception  of  education  and 
public  manners,  M.  Duruy  belonged  entirely  to  the 
reforming  and  innovating  period  which  opened  at  the 
close  of  the  war.  M.  Duruy's  was  a  fine  education, 
antique  in  its  nobility  and  simplicity.  Napoleon  III. 
had  valued  it,  the  more  so  as  he  felt  that  it  was  not 
fitted  for  honors,  and  inflexible  in  the  presence  oi 
flattery.  There  exists  a  celebrated  engraving,  which 
represents  M.  Duruy,  during  the  gloomy  days  of  1870, 
enrolled  in  the  National  Guard,  and  mounting  guard 
in  front  of  the  Ministry  of  Public  Education,  where  he 
had  so  long  resided  as  minister.  Nothing  more  plainly 
shows  to  what  a  degree  the  learned  historian  of  the 
Greeks  and  the  Romans  had  assimilated  to  himself  the 

1  See  M.  O.  Greard,  Education  et  Instruction.    4  vols. 


328  THE  EVOLUTION  OF  FRANCE. 

grandeur  of  soul  of  those  men  of  whose  labors  he  had 
rendered  himself  the  contemporary  and  the  friend. 
The  creation  of  special  secondary  instruction  ought,  in 
his  opinion,  to  insure  to  the  young  men  who  intended 
to  devote  themselves  to  agriculture,  to  manufactures, 
or  to  commerce,  rapid  teaching  without  either  Greek  or 
Latin.  The  principal  advantage  of  this  course  of  in- 
struction consisted  in  having  its  duration  reduced  to 
four  years  ;  but,  in  1881,  a  fifth  year  was  added,  and, 
in  1886,  a  sixth.  Thus  special  instruction  lost  its 
motive  of  existence.  On  the  other  hand,  unanimous 
complaint  was  made  of  the  unfortunate  influence  ex- 
ercised by  the  degree  of  Bachelor  upon  classical 
studies. 

The  Superior  Council  of  Public  Education  had  before 
it  a  peculiarly  delicate  task  :  from  the  aggregate  of 
complaints,  criticisms,  plans,  wishes  expressed  on  all 
sides,  nothing  stood  out  distinctly  which  might  serve 
to  guide  them ;  the  very  object  to  be  attained  remained 
indistinct.  Every  one  felt  the  need  for  reforms;  nobody 
knew  in  what  direction  they  should  be  accomplished. 
Ingenious  and  alluring  arraignments  had  been  drawn 
up  against  classical  studies ;  war  had  been  declared 
upon  them  by  the  universities  themselves ;  ^  they 
tried  their  hand  at  freedom  of  thought,  and  drew  up 
plans  for  improvement  with  all  the  good-will  and 
awkwardness  which  distinguish  recently  emancipated 
minds.  They  extolled  the  exact  sciences,  discounting 
the  effects  of  a  hidden  philosophy,  even  of  an  unpub- 
lished scheme  of  morals  of  which  these  exact  sciences 

1  See  M.  Raoul  Frary,  Question  du  Latin.  The  advocates  of  letters 
replied  to  this,  -with  M.  Michel  Breal,  that  "it  would  be  pure  madness  to 
labor  with  our  own  hands  to  destroy  the  studies  with  which  our  whole  past 
is  so  intimately  bound  up."  (De  I' Enaeignment  des  Langues  Anciennes, 
by  M.  Br^al.) 


EDUCATION.  329 

were  supposed  to  contain  the  precious  germs  ;  ^  and, 
above  all,  knowledge  was  no  longer  appreciated,  ex- 
cept by  quantity,  so  that  programmes  continued  to  be 
increasingly  overweighted,  technical  vocabularies  grew 
ever  longer,  examinations  were  multiplied,  and  the 
prospect  that  France  would  be  subjected  in  the  future 
to  the  Mandarin  system  was  plainly  discernible. 

Perhaps  the  task  would  have  seemed  less  laborious 
had  the  Superior  Council  chanced  to  be  differently 
constituted;  if,  by  the  side  of  the  representatives  of 
official  pedagogy,  they  had  been  clever  enough  to 
make  room  for  the  representatives  of  all  the  great 
social  interests.^  But  the  University  had  not  yet 
reached  the  point  where  it  allowed  itself  to  be  affected 
by  influences  from  without.  The  ancient  spirit  of  the 
institution  still  weighed  so  heavily  upon  its  assemblies, 
that  those  who  sat  in  them  could  not  but  feel  some 
alarm  at  the  idea  of  taking  counsel  from  men  who  did 
not  belong  to  their  corporation,  who  did  not  hold,  on 
many  points,  the  same  views,  did  not  have  the  same 
habits  of  thought,  were  disposed  to  consider  things 
from  a  different  angle.  But  when  parents  are  kept 
aloof  from  what  concerns  the  education  of  their  chil- 
dren, and  are  invited  to  the  lyceums  only  on  the  occa- 
sion of  a  few  rare  and  solemn  festivals,  they  lose  interest 
in  what  goes  on  there.     They  have  been  told  :  We  are 

1  "  It  [science]  matures  the  character  by  communicating  to  it,  as  by  a 
sort  of  contagion,  the  fixedness  of  natural  laws.  It  teaches  it  both  obedi- 
ence and  liberty,  by  emancipating  it  from  inferior  tutelage  to  bow  it  before 
the  sole  respectable  authority ;  it  delivers  it  from  superstitions,  and  gives 
it  true  independence,  by  subjecting  it  to  one  sole  master.  Moreover,  sci- 
ence is  a  poetry  and  a  religion  ;  it  makes  the  soul  quiver  with  the  noble 
thrill  of  the  immense  and  the  eternal,  and  by  making  it  greater,  elevates 
it,  and  thereby  purifies  it."  Berthelet,  La  Crise  de  V Enseignment  Secon- 
daire.    La  Science  Educatrlce.     {Revtte  des  Deux  Mondes,  May  15,  1891.) 

2  A  resolution  to  this  effect  was  formulated  by  M.  Joseph  Reinach  in 
one  of  the  discussions  relating  to  the  appropriations  for  public  instruction. 


330  THE  EVOLUTION   OF  FRANCE. 

going  to  rear  your  children;  do  not  interfere  in  any- 
way, —  and  they  have  taken  this  advice  literally.  Only 
one  thing  affects  them  strongly,  —  examinations.  To 
lose  a  year  for  the  lack  of  a  few  points  in  marks  seems 
to  them  the  supreme  misfortune,  and  they  are  not 
wholly  wrong  in  this  age  of  regulated  competition 
when,  in  many  careers,  worth  and  individual  effort  do 
not  take  precedence  of  seniority.  Add  to  this  the  in- 
cessant progress  of  science,  the  succession  of  discoveries 
which  modify  points  of  view  and  transform  methods, 
and  it  is  readily  to  be  understood  that,  even  at  the 
moment  when  public  opinion  began  to  feel  anxious 
about  overdriving,  the  University  proceeded,  with  the 
firm  intention  of  lightening  its  programmes,  still  fur- 
ther to  overload  them! 

As  soon  as  overdriving  was  mentioned,  the  Acad- 
emy of  Medicine  decided  that  the  matter  pertained  to 
its  domain,  and  that  an  incursion  on  its  part  into  the 
realm  of  public  education  would  be  legitimate  on  every 
score.  But  neither  the  Academy  of  Medicine  nor  the 
Superior  Council  suspected  that  there  was  something 
more  in  this  than  a  question  of  programmes ;  before 
deciding  that  the  brain  was  being  overworked,  it  was 
not  unprofitable  to  recall  the  fact  that  the  muscles  were 
not  working  enough,  so  that  the  proper  equilibrium  was 
destroyed.  It  was  private  enterprise  which  was  put  in 
operation,  on  this  occasion,  to  organize  physical  exer- 
cises in  the  very  heart  of  the  University,  —  and,  at  first, 
rather  against  its  will,  —  and  to  remind  people  that 
moral  education  can  be  inculcated  with  physical  edu- 
cation, and  that,  in  any  case,  no  moral  education  is 
accomplished  with  instruction  alone. 

In  the  lyceums  religion  occupies  an  accessory  and 
little  valued  place ;   but  this  is  not  subject,  from  the 


EDUCATION.  331 

moral  point  of  view,  to  the  same  inconvenience  as  in 
the  primary  scliool.  The  lyceum  boy  has  often  re- 
ceived from  his  family  an  impress  of  religious  faith, 
of  severe  virtue,  or,  at  least,  of  sturdy  patriotism. 
Rarely  does  it  happen  that  his  conscience  is  not 
awakened.  What  he  lacks  is  character ;  he  is  not 
taught  to  exercise  his  will ;  he  is  not  allowed  the  use 
of  his  liberty;  he  is  not  exercised  in  enterprise,  in 
decision,  and  how  can  the  masters  do  this  when  they 
themselves  are  dependent  to  excess,  inspected,  super- 
intended, swaddled,  so  to  speak  ?^  If  the  free  estab- 
lishments had  understood  how  to  organize  this  training 
of  character,  even  in  a  restricted  measure,  to  throw 
down  walls,  render  life  easy  and  joyous  to  the  chil- 
dren, to  accustom  them  progressively  to  liberty,  noth- 
ing could  have  saved  the  lyceums,  neither  the  money 
generously  voted  to  rebuild  their  antiquated  walls  and 
to  improve  their  arrangements  and  furniture,  nor  the 
sacrifices  agreed  upon  for  the  sake  of  reducing  the 
price  of  board,  augmenting  the  number  of  scholarships, 
facilitating  the  access  to  secondary  instruction  for  all. 
But  although  they  were  engaged  in  open  warfare  with 
the  University,  the  free  establishments  shared  in  its 

1  An  impulse  of  reform  arose  in  tlie  midst  of  the  University ;  supported 
by  the  power  and  authority  of  M.  H.  Marion,  Professor  of  Pedagogy  in  the 
Faculty  of  Letters  of  Paris,  a  number  of  head  masters  and  professors  have 
made  fortunate  beginnings ;  nevertheless,  it  is  impossible  to  foresee  what 
will  become  of  their  undertakings.  They  certainly  do  contain  the  germ  of 
a  transformation,  but  its  development  is  opposed  by  the  false  advocates  of 
reform  ideas.  See  the  works  of  M.  Marion,  and  especially  his  Report  to 
the  Committee  charged  with  the  investigation  of  the  proper  improvements 
to  be  introduced  into  the  system  of  the  establishments  for  secondary 
instruction.  1881).  As  for  instruction  itself,  a  greater  liberty  is  permitted 
to-day  to  the  person  who  gives  it ;  he  is  held  less  narrowly  imprisoned  in 
the  bonds  of  tradition ;  his  talent  and  his  success  will  win  pardon  for 
many  bold  experiments  which  would  have  appeared  doubtful  a  few  years 
ago. 


332  THE  EVOLUTION  OF  FRANCE. 

spirit  and  its  traditions ;  the  majority  confined  them- 
selves to  adding  to  its  pedagogical  methods  a  very 
strongly  enforced  religious  action  ;  they  feared  equally 
the  spirit  of  liberty  and  the  spirit  of  innovation. 

During  the  ten-year  period  from  1876-1887,  the 
state  establishments  for  secondary  education  had  gained 
10,907  units  ;  from  1887  to  1891,  they  lost  6188.  The 
population  of  the  academies  and  colleges  was,  in  1887, 
89,902,  and  in  May,  1891,  it  was  only  83,714.  Four- 
fifths  of  this  diminution  occurs  in  the  boarding-school 
section.  During  this  period  the  ecclesiastical  establish- 
ments have  never  ceased  to  grow,  in  slow  but  constant 
progress :  from  309  in  1876,  with  46,816  pupils,  they 
rose  to  349  in  1887,  and  352  in  1891 ;  at  the  latter  date 
they  had  51,287  pupils.  It  is  proper  to  add  139  small 
seminaries,  with  more  than  20,000  pupils.  These  fig- 
ures permit  us  to  establish  the  fact  that  the  pupils  lost 
by  the  State  have  not  passed  over  to  the  ecclesiastical 
establishments,  since  the  latter  have  gained  only  1200 
pupils,  while  the  State  has  lost  6000. ^  Many  reasons 
can  be  assigned  to  explain  this  loss  :  the  decree  of 
1887,  which  raised  the  price  of  school  fees,  the  enor- 
mous progress  of  professional  and  utilitarian  instruc- 
tion. But  it  is  certain  that  the  insignificant  amount 
of  moral  education,  the  too  exclusive  anxiety  for  suc- 
cess in  examinations,  and  the  neglect  of  the  condi- 
tions propitious  for  the  formation  of  character  and 
for  the  development  of  manliness  count  for  much. 

If  the  zeal  of  the  teaching  religious  bodies  has 
been  stimulated  thereby,  we  cannot  express  too  much 
admiration  for   the  manner  in  which  the   University 

1  As  for  free  secular  education,  its  fall  has  been  rapid :  494  secondary 
establishments  and  30,000  pupils  were  set  down  to  its  account  in  1876.  In 
1887  it  reckoned  up  302  establishments  and  20,000  pupils;  in  1891,  250 
establishments  and  15,000  pupils. 


EDUCATION.  333 

has  accepted  the  consequences.  In  vain  has  the  pos- 
sibility of  obtaining  protective  legislation  been  sug- 
gested to  it ;  it  has  not  even  requested  that  the 
decrees  of  1880,  which  temporarily  disorganized  the 
colleges  of  the  Jesuits,  should  be  applied  again. ^  It 
has  contented  itself  with  the  weapons  of  liberty  which 
it  had  nobly  chosen.  Only,  the  warfare  continues  to 
be  stern  though  subdued,  and  that  is  why  the  Univer- 
sity men  were  not  particularly  pleased  by  the  appeal 
to  "  the  new  spirit "  expressed  in  1893  by  M.  Spuller, 
their  grand  master  at  that  time. 

The  Republic  has  done  more  for  the  secondary  edu- 
cation of  girls  than  for  that  of  boys.  It  may  almost 
be  said  that  it  has  created  it.  The  history  of  the 
education  of  girls  is  that  of  indefinite  delays  which 
the  administration,  on  the  one  hand,  political  insta- 
bility on  the  other,  have  opposed  to  progress  long 
admitted  to  be  indispensable.  The  Constituent  As- 
sembly proclaimed  the  principle  of  equality  of  the 
sexes  in  the  matter  of  education.  Lakanal  got  the 
Convention  to  decree  that  every  primary  school  should 
be  divided  into  two  sections, — one  for  the  boys,  with 
a  schoolmaster ;  the  other  for  girls,  with  a  school- 
mistress.2  Nothing  practical  resulted  from  this  deci- 
sion ;  it  remained  a  dead  letter.  The  statute  of  March 
17,  1808,  which  settled  the  basis  of  the  Imperial  Uni- 
versity, made  no  mention  of  schools  for  girls.  A 
report,  drawn  up  in  1810  by  Mme.  de  Genlis  for  the 
Emperor,  proved  negligences  and  abuses  without  num- 
ber.      The    same   proofs    appeared   again,   twenty-one 

1  In  1865  the  Jesuits  possessed  in  France  14  establishments  of  secondary 
instruction  with  5074  pupils.    In  187()  they  possessed  27,  with  89, 131  pupils. 
-  Decree  of  Brumaire  27,  Year  III.  (November  17,  1894). 


384  THE  EVOLUTION  OF  FRANCE. 

years  later,  under  the  pen  of  M.  de  ^lontalivet,  ad- 
dressed to  King  Louis  Philippe.^  An  ordinance  of  1836 
finally  settled  the  conditions  under  which  schools  for 
girls  might  be  established  ;  but  only  under  the  Second 
Republic  was  the  obligation  of  the  communes  to  estab- 
lish them  made  a  part  of  the  law.  The  battle  over 
secondary  instruction  lasted  for  a  long  time  thereafter. 
No  doubt,  Mme.  Campan  had  conceived  vast  projects 
which  she  might,  for  a  short  time,  have  believed  to  be 
on  the  verge  of  realization.  But  Napoleon  did  not 
appreciate  them  in  the  least,  and  restricted  himself  to 
a  more  modest  plan  for  the  houses  of  the  Legion  of 
Honor.  Outside  of  the  religious  boarding-schools, 
which  were  very  numerous  towards  the  middle  of  the 
present  century,  there  existed  only  series  of  lectures, 
which  enjoyed  considerable  popularity  for  a  time  ;  most 
of  them  aimed  rather  at  inculcating  a  taste  for  study 
than  at  conveying  instruction.  Though  due  to  private 
initiative,  they  gradually  won  official  favor  ;  the  Uni- 
versity lent  its  professors,  and  even  granted  the  hospi- 
tality of  the  Sorbonne.  At  last  the  time  arrived  for 
creating  a  regular  system  of  secondary  instruction  for 
girls.  This  was  the  object  of  Camille  See's  bill,  which, 
presented  to  the  Chamber  in  October,  1878,  and 
amended  by  Paul  Bert,  ended,  under  the  ministry  of 
Jules  Ferry,  in  the  law  of  December  21,  1880. ^ 

This  law  raised  tempests ;  the  moderation  and  the 
wisdom  of  its  principal  provisions  were  misunderstood. 

1  "  A  certain  number  of  schools  ranged  among  the  schools  for  boys," 
wrote  the  minister,  "  comprise  children  of  both  sexes.  Everything  leads 
us  to  believe  that  the  schools  especially  designed  for  girls  have  been  left  in 
a  situation  still  more  deplorable  than  those  designed  for  boys." 

2  See,  on  this  subject,  the  very  interesting  statements  of  M.  Greard, 
Vice-Rector  of  the  Academy  of  Paris,  in  the  third  volume  of  his  work, 
Education  et  Instruction. 


EDUCATION.  335 

One  would  have  said,  to  hear  the  harangues  of  its  ad- 
versaries, that  it  was  setting  up  a  system  of  education 
based  upon  a  monstrous  assimilation  between  woman 
and  man.  In  reality,  it  carried  on  the  pedagogical 
traditions  of  Mme.  de  Maintenon,  from  which  the  foun- 
dresses of  the  religious  boarding-schools  had  swerved. 
Scarcely  had  it  been  promulgated,  when  a  normal 
school  was  opened  at  Sdvres,  for  the  purpose  of  putting 
it  in  practice,  and  then  twenty-five  plans  for  establish- 
ing academies  for  girls  were  adopted,  and  negotiations 
were  opened  with  numerous  municipalities  with  a  view 
to  increasing  the  number  of  these  establishments.  The 
utility  of  a  legislative  measure  is  gauged  by  the  eager- 
ness to  make  use  of  it  displayed  by  the  citizens. 

Another  advantageous  point  under  a  democracy  is, 
that  the  law  is  called  upon  to  consecrate  the  happy 
initiative  of  its  citizens.  The  reconstitution  of  the  dis- 
trict universities  furnished  an  occasion  for  this ;  but 
such  an  occasion  presents  itself  so  rarely  in  France, 
that  the  legislator  seems  to  hesitate  to  grasp  it,  as  if 
the  undertaking  alarmed  him  by  its  audacity  and  its 
novelty.  Nevertheless,  the  idea  was  not  novel,  and  had 
not  been  regarded  as  audacious  in  less  propitious  times. 

In  1815  Royer-CoUard  drew  up  an  ordinance,  by 
which  the  Imperial  University  vanished  to  make  room 
for  seventeen  regional  universities.  This  ordinance 
never  saw  the  light.  He  who  had  conceived  it  was 
sufficiently  liberal  to  appreciate  the  scope  of  such  a 
reform,  and  to  discount  its  advantages ;  but  the  majority 
of  Frenchmen  would  have  discerned  in  this  act  only  a 
deliberate  reaction  against  the  preceding  system.  More- 
over, the  regional  universities  could  not  live ;  they 
lacked  everything.     It  seems  that  Guizot  and  Victor 


336  THE  EVOLUTION   OF  FRANCE. 

Cousin  desired  to  take  up  Royer-Collard's  plan ;  but 
the  unpopularity  which  then  attached  to  any  attempt 
at  decentralization  paralyzed  their  good-will.  The  law 
of  1850,  which  destroyed  the  University,  in  so  far  as  it 
was  a  corporation  enjoying  a  monopoly  and  an  endow- 
ment, did  not  create  universities ;  it  confined  itself  to 
organizing,  in  the  stead  and  place  of  this  corporation, 
the  department  of  Public  Education,  that  is  to  say, 
state  education  alongside  of  free  education.  M.  Duruy 
found  himself  pretty  much  in  the  same  situation  as 
]\I.  Guizot.  Nevertheless,  he  :^ounded  that  School  of 
Higher  Studies,  the  first  basis  of  reform,  which  was 
truly  a  focus  of  university  spirit,  if  not  of  university 
life.  It  was  after  1870  that  the  awakening  took  place. 
The  part  which  the  German  students  had  played  in  the 
re-establishment  of  the  Empire  w^as  suddenly  perceived, 
and,  by  comparison,  men  ascertained  that  France  had  no 
students. 

Let  us  understand  the  matter  clearly.  She  had  nine 
thousand  students,  against  twenty-two  thousand  in 
1893.  The  difference  is  great  in  quantity ;  but  in 
quality  it  is  immense.  The  nine  thousand  followed 
several  courses,  or,  rather,  they  were  inscribed  with  a 
view  to  certain  examinations ;  they  prepared  them- 
selves for  these  examinations,  isolated,  abandoned ;  they 
studied;  they  were  not  students.  That  which,  above  all 
else,  characterizes  students  is  solidarity,  —  solidarity  in 
work,  in  amusements,  in  effort,  in  emotion ;  solidarity 
not  only  with  the  older  or  younger  comrades  who  come 
and  go,  but  with  the  masters  in  the  passionate  quest 
of  scientific  progress.  An  individualistic  university, 
where  every  man  should  work  only  at  his  own  advance- 
ment, and  should  think  only  of  his  own  future,  would 
be,  in  some  sort,  an  institution  contrarv  to  nature.    Far 


EDUCATION.  337 

from  producing  collective  force,  it  would  engender  des- 
iccation and  disintegration.  Whenever  the  young  men 
of  a  country  are  agglomerated  in  a  place  of  work,  if 
that  place  is  a  focus  of  national  life,  there  exists  an 
excess  of  solidarity  among  those  who  are  collected 
there.  It  is  a  certain  criterion ;  for,  in  order  to  have 
sufficient  solidarity  in  work,  that  solidarity  must,  of 
necessity — when  young  men  are  in  question — be  ex- 
cessive in  amusement.  Clever  nations  attribute  extreme 
importance  to  the  merry  demonstrations  of  their  stu- 
dents ;  they  rarely  have  cause  to  repent. 

About  1875  wise  statesmen  felt  that  France  lacked 
force  in  this  direction ;  but  they  then  imagined  that 
a  change  in  the  University  organization  would  suffice 
to  remedy  the  defect.  M.  Waddington  prepared  a  bill 
which  created  seven  universities  by  grouping  together 
academies,  those  of  Caen,  Paris,  and  Rennes  being  joined 
to  form  the  University  of  Paris,  those  of  Grenoble, 
Dijon,  and  Clermont,  entering  into  the  University  of 
Lyons,  and  so  on.  The  plan  was  doubly  imperfect: 
in  the  first  place,  because  a  university,  in  order  to 
lead  its  true  life,  must  not  be  cut  up  into  bits,  and  in 
the  second  place,  because  the  name  does  not  make  the 
thing,  and  before  having  universities,  it  was  necessary 
to  train-  students.  M.  Waddington's  law  suffered  the 
fate  of  Royer-Collard's  ordinance :  it  remained  buried 
in  the  official  pigeonholes.  The  government  could  not 
do  much  in  this  matter,  and  the  work  which  it  desired 
to  accomplish  was  destined  to  fall  to  the  lot  of  eminent 
men  who,  anxious  only  to  raise  the  standard  of  public 
education,  had  already  toiled  long,  outside  of  all  politi- 
cal fluctuations,  at  the  development  of  faculties.  M.  du 
Mesnil  was  one  of  these  men ;  Albert  Dumont  was  another, 
zealous,  persevering,  indefatigable.     Other  workers  fol- 


338  THE  EVOLUTION   OF  FRANCE. 

lowed,  who,  more  fortunate,  beheld  the  crowning  of 
the  edifice :  M.  Liard,  the  eminent  Director  of  Supe- 
rior Instruction,  who  has  himself  set  forth  the  his- 
tory of  this  question ;  M.  Lavisse,  whose  eloquence  has 
so  often  thrilled  the  young  members  of  the  schools ; 
and  others  still,  less  conspicuously  placed,  but  whose 
action  and  influence  have  been  no  less  forcibly  exerted 
in  a  more  restricted  sphere. 

It  was  necessary  to  reconstruct  buildings,  plans,  im- 
plements, and  to  make  over  programmes  also.  The 
buildings  were  insufficient;  in  many  places  they  were 
unsuitable.  The  outfit  was  incomplete,  and,  in  some 
cases,  did  not  exist  at  all.  The  plans  of  work  required 
enlargement.  The  programmes  were  not  in  accord 
with  the  state  of  science,  especially  where  medicine 
and  the  degree  of  licentiate  of  letters  were  concerned. 
The  transformation  began,  very  modestly,  about  1879, 
at  Lyons,  at  Douai,  at  Bordeaux,  at  Paris,  and  at  Mont- 
pellier. 

In  less  than  three  years  there  were  groups  of  stu- 
dents here  and  there;  the  germ  of  reformation  was 
multiplying.  Parliament  did  not  refuse  the  requisite 
loans,  which  were,  however,  very  moderate.  In  1883 
'an  investigation  was  instituted.  A  question  was  put 
to  the  persons  interested  :  Is  there  any  reason  for 
transforming  the  faculties  into  universities  analogous  to 
those  which  exist  abroad  ?  The  reply  from  the  ma- 
jority of  the  faculties  was  :  Yes.  The  temptation  to 
present  a  law  in  reply  to  these  expressed  wishes  again 
presented  itself.  "But,"  said  M.  Liard,  "we  were 
wise  enough  to  wait  a  little  longer.  It  was  deemed 
better  to  place  the  faculties  in  a  position  to  prove  their 
university  vocation.  To  that  end,  they  were  granted  a 
liberty  which  they  had  never  hitherto  known,  mediums 


EDUCATION.  339 

of  common  life  which  were  entirely  new,  and  they 
were  told  :  Live  and  act.  The  universities  will  be  the 
goal  and  the  recompense."  ^  In  truth,  the  decrees  of 
1885  restored  to  the  faculties  that  civil  personality 
which  had  ceased  to  exist  in  fact,  if  not  in  law.  The 
General  Council  was  created,  —  a  sort  of  university 
senate  which,  in  each  academy,  exercises  scholastic, 
scientific,  administrative,  financial,  and  disciplinary 
attributes.  The  end  was  pursued,  successively,  of  con- 
centrating the  masters  in  the  bosom  of  each  faculty, 
and  of  concentrating  the  faculties  in  the  bosom  of  each 
academy ;  and  meanwhile,  the  concentration  of  the 
students  was  being  effected  on  the  other  hand.  The 
object  was  not  so  much  to  create  pecuniary  resources, 
as  to  multiply  the  bonds  which  united  the  faculties  to 
the  cities,  to  the  districts,  to  the  citizens.  In  Lyons 
the  society  of  the  Friends  of  the  Lyons  University  was 
founded,  inspired  by  the  spirit  of  enterprise  which  dis- 
tinguishes that  great  city.  Montpellier  was  already 
looking  forward  to  the  opportunity  afforded  by  the  cele- 
bration of  its  sixth  centenary  to  assert  the  intensity 
and  the  vitality  of  its  university  aspirations.  But  the 
public  had  not  yet  been  taken  into  their  confidence. 
The  newspapers  said  nothing.  Consequently,  people 
grew  indignant  when  they  saw  MM.  Berthelot  and 
Spuller  transport  to  Lille  the  faculties  of  law  and 
letters  which  were  living  in  isolation  at  Douai.  Peo- 
ple cried  out  against  centralization  in  the  presence  of  a 
measure  preparatory  to  the  most  complete  and  most 
frank  effort  at  decentralization  which  France  has  seen 
carried  out  in  this  century. 

"  The  experiment  has  now  been  going  on  for  five 
years,"  wrote  M.  Liard  in  1890,  "  and  in  more  than  one 

1  L.  Liard,  UniveraiUs  et  Facult^s. 


340  THE  EVOLUTION  OF  FRANCE. 

respect  it  has  succeeded  beyond  the  most  optimistic 
hopes.  The  moment  of  consecration  cannot  be  long 
delayed.  To  the  fact  must  be  added  the  right.  It  is 
not,  please  to  observe,  a  simple  affair  of  words,  or  of 
local  vanity.  We  must  not  say  :  Such  as  they  are 
to-day,  with  their  General  Councils,  our  faculties  possess 
a  life  which  will  bear  comparison  with  that  of  univer- 
sities abroad.  They  will  possess  but  a  title  the  more 
on  the  day  when  they  become  universities.  No  ;  two 
essentials  are  wanting  in  the  groups  which  they  now 
form,  —  unity  and  personality.  These  groupings  are 
maintained,  no  doubt,  because  they  rest  upon  good- 
will and  upon  a  hope  ;  but  they  constitute  only  a 
transitory,  not  a  definitive  state.  Each  one  of  the 
elements  of  which  they  are  composed  is  stronger  than 
the  whole,  which  is  a  contradiction.  It  has  legal  unity, 
the  group  has  not ;  it  has  civil  personality,  the  group 
has  not. "  ^ 

On  July  22,  1890,  the  government  brought  into  the 
Senate  a  bill  for  a  law  relating  to  the  constitution  of 
universities.  The  debate  opened  on  March  10,  1892  ; 
a  year  and  a  half  had  passed  in  collecting  the  opinions 
of  the  learned  world,  and,  above  all,  in  listening  to  the 
complaints  of  towns  which  deemed  themselves  wTonged. 
The  majority  of  the  senators  was  hostile  ;  once  more 
local  interests  carried  the  day  over  general  interests. 
Nevertheless,  the  question  is  only  postponed ;  it  is 
hardly  possible  to  elude  it.  In  any  case,  Article  7  of 
the  law  of  Finances,  of  April  28,  1893,  by  ordaining 
that  "  the  body  formed  by  the  union  of  several  faculties 
of  the  State  in  one  academic  department  is  invested 
with  civil  corporateness,"  has  put  an  end  to  the  un- 
fortunate anomaly  pointed  out  by  M.  Liard.     In  the 

1  L.  Liard,  UniversiUa  et  Facultds. 


EDUCATION.  341 

meantime,  excellent  progress  has  been  made.  The 
university  cities  have  made  large  sacrifices  :  "  Lyons 
has  spent  seven  million  ;  Bordeaux,  three;  Grenoble 
has  given  720,000  francs  for  its  faculties,  and  Caen 
about  900,000.  Since  the  year  1876,  211  professor- 
ships, 200  complementary  courses,  and  129  lectureships 
have  been  created,  in  the  old  faculties,  and  in  the 
faculties  of  medicine  and  law  recently  instituted. "  ^ 
Finally,  the  nature  of  instruction  has  been  modified. 
"Where  professional  anxieties  reigned,  more  science 
has  been  introduced,  and  a  professional  task  has  been 
set  to  the  faculties  which  did  not  possess  it."^  The 
students  have  become  the  associates  of  the  professors. 
"  They  no  longer  receive  science  ready-made  ;  they 
aid  in  making  it ;  they  take  part  in  the  researches,  the  ' 
gropings,  the  investigations,  of  their  masters."^ 

They  have  united  their  own  efforts  by  founding  as- 
sociations which  the  public  powers  have  ingeniously 
encouraged.  The  General  Association  of  the  Students 
of  Paris,  founded  in  1884,  reckoned,  in  1893,  nearly  six 
thousand  active  members.*  It  played  an  active  part  in 
1889,  at  the  inauguration  of  the  palace  of  the  Sorbonne, 
which  attracted  to  Paris  the  representatives  of  the  uni- 
versities of  the  world.  Its  delegates  have  participated 
in  more  than  one  international  scientific  solemnity.  If, 
on  other  occasions,  it  has  surprised  and  discouraged 
some  of  its  protectors,  and  led  to  a  current  of  public 
opinion  less  favorable  to  their  views,  the  fault  lies  in 
that  cynicism  which  has  too  long  dominated  young 
Frenchmen,  and  against  which  they  find  it  difficult  to 
react,  because  the  preceding  generation  does  not  render 

1  Paul  Melon,  L'Enseignment  Sup^rieur  et  I'Enseigntnent  Technique  en 
France.  2  Jbid 

8  Report  of  M.  Ch.  Duruy  on  the  appropriations  for  public  education, 
1893.  *  Annuaire  de  la  Jeunesse,  1894. 


342  TEE  EVOLUTION  OF  FRANCE. 

the  slightest  aid.  In  this  respect,  the  presence  in 
Paris,  and  in  other  large  cities,  of  numerous  foreign 
students  must  be  regarded  as  a  benefit ;  twenty  years 
ago  their  number  was  insignificant ;  at  the  present 
time  it  is  considerable.  Their  influence  will  not  prove 
unavailing ;  they  learn  to  know  a  France  which  was 
unknown  in  their  own  homes,  and  they  give  to  the 
Frenchmen,  their  comrades,  a  more  just  notion  of  the 
rest  of  the  world. 

It  must  not  be  imagined  that  the  district  universities, 
once  reconstituted,  will  enjoy  absolute  independence. 
The  system  of  emancipation  to  which  they  aspire  would 
appear  intolerable  to  the  Senate  of  Cambridge  or  to  the 
President  of  Yale :  they  will  be  able  to  think  and  act 
more  freely,  and  that  is  much.  But  they  will  not  be 
able  to  escape  the  action  of  the  State,  which  will  hence- 
forth be  exercised  upon  public  education  in  France  in 
an  all  but  irremediable  manner.  At  the  advent  of  the 
Third  Republic  it  was  still  an  open  question  whether  the 
State  would,  or  would  not,  assume  a  definitive  prepon- 
derance over  free  instruction ;  the  Republic  has  settled 
it  in  the  afBrmative.  It  was  not  obliged  to  do  so,  by 
its  principles;  circumstances,  rather,  have  led  to  that 
result.  Free  instruction  obstinately  resisted ;  at  times, 
it  presented  the  illusion  of  a  half-victory,  but  it  was 
only  an  illusion.  When  the  political  hatreds  which 
play  off  the  free  primary  school  against  the  public  pri- 
mary school  shall  have  finally  subsided,  the  former 
will  disappear,  because  its  means  of  subsistence  will  be 
exhausted  :  it  will  receive  no  more  money,  and  will 
excite  no  more  enthusiasm.  The  attempts  which  have 
been  made,  with  a  view  to  creating  free  higher  instruc- 
tion at  Paris,  Angers,  Lille,  Lyons,  and  Toulouse,  have 
ended  in  disappointment,  and  there,  again,  politics  serve 


EDUCATION.  343 

as  a  support.  Only  one  foundation  has  prospered,  —  the 
free  school  of  political  sciences  of  Paris.  This  assur- 
edly is  one  of  the  finest  creations  of  the  present  time ; 
but  its  success,  like  its  origin,  is  exceptional. 

As  for  secondary  instruction,  besides  being,  by  nature, 
fictitious  and  conventional,  and  apt,  in  consequence,  to 
undergo  the  most  radical  metamorphoses,  it  is  important 
to  note  that  no  serious  and  consecutive  effort  has  yet 
been  made  by  the  State  to  exclude  its  rivals.  We  have 
already  pointed  out  that  the  University  had  nobly  ac- 
cepted the  combat  with  equal  weapons,  but  if  one  of  its 
great  teachers  were  to  take  the  initiative  in  protective 
legislation,  the  majority  of  public  opinion  would  hardly 
criticise  him  ;  it  certainly  would  not  rise  in  revolt,  so 
indifferent  has  it  become  to  the  fate  of  free  education. 
Hence,  it  considers  that  education  is  a  State  service. 

The  tendency  to  invest  the  State  with  a  pedagogical 
role  seems  to  be  increasing  in  our  day  :  in  whatever 
direction  one  turns,  one  perceives  the  primary  school 
directed,  inspected,  or  coveted  by  the  State ;  ^  but  this 
tendency  is  not  new.  Theologians  have  long  encour- 
aged it ;  Saint  Thomas  Aquinas  admits,  in  plain  terms, 
the  right  of  the  State. ^  The  "laws  and  statutes "  of  the 
University,  made  and  promulgated  on  September  18, 
1600,  by  "  the  order  and  will "  of  King  Henry  IV.,  im- 
plicitly proclaim  it.^     In  the  time  of  Louis  XIV.,  the 

1  It  is  to  be  noted  that  the  Anglo-Saxon  world  does  not  escape  the  gen- 
eral current  on  this  point.  Moreover,  if  the  movement  has  been  more 
tardy  and  slow  in  England,  it  is  becanse  private  industry  forms  the  citi- 
zen there  after  a  definite  type,  which  is  the  same  for  all.  Under  an  appar- 
ent diversity  of  appearances,  we  may  say  that  unity  is  realized  to  such  a 
degree  that  the  State  would  not  be  able  to  render  it  more  complete. 

-  Contra  Impugnantes  Religionem. 

8  Even  disagreement  between  the  State  and  the  Church  is  provided  for. 
Article  23  specifies  that,  in  the  teaching  of  the  faculty,  "nothing  shall  be 
contrary  to  the  rights  and  dignity  of  the  King  and  of  the  realm."  (Com- 
payre,  Histoire  Critique  des  Doctrines  de  VEducation  en  France,  Vol.  II.) 


344  THE  EVOLUTION  OF  FRANCE. 

theory  remains  the  same.^  At  the  approach  of  the 
Revolution,  men  descanted  learnedly,  and  not  without 
pedantry,  on  everything  which  concerned  education. 
The  majority  of  the  great  thoughts  and  the  wild 
schemes  of  the  Convention  have  already  been  announced 
and  discussed.  Diderot  and  Helvetius  agreed  in  their 
protests  in  favor  "  of  a  national  and  civil  system  of  edu- 
cation entrusted  to  the  hands  of  laymen,  and  directed 
by  the  State." ^  And  Turgot  declares  that  "the  study 
of  the  duties  of  a  citizen  ought  to  form  the  founda- 
tion of  all  other  studies."^  President  Holland,  in  his 
"  Plan  for  Education  in  Universities  and  Colleges,"  * 
proposes  that  all  establishments  created  by  the  private 
enterprise  should  be  subordinated  to  the  official  colleges, 
and,  by  the  decree  of  August  6,  1779,  the  court  of 
Paris  orders  that,  in  all  cities  where  there  are  colleges, 
the  masters  of  boarding-schools  shall  be  obliged  to  take 
thither  "  all  their  boarders  who  are  studying  the  Latin 
language,  beginning  with  the  fifth  class."  It  is  evident 
that  old  France  was  not  liberal  in  the  matter  of  edu- 
cation. Therefore  there  is  no  reason  for  astonishment 
if  modern  France -has  allowed  the  State  to  assume 
the  pedagogical  preponderance.  Neither  would  there 
be  any  reason  for  excessive  alarm,  if  it  were  merely  a 
question  of  science.  It  is  impossible  to  enslave  science  ; 
henceforth  it  dwells  on  inaccessible  peaks.  But  educa- 
tion comprises  something  more  than  cultivation  of  the 
mind ;  in  order  to  make  a  man,  liberty  is  needed.  Per- 
haps power  will  belong,  in  the  future,  to  collective  bodies, 

1  See  Mimoire  sur  lea  Ordonnances. 

2  Compayre,  Histoire  Critique  des  Doctrines  de  I'J^ducation  en  France, 
Vol.  II. 

8  Memorials  to  the  King. 

*  Presented  on  May  13,  1768,  to  the  assembled  Chambers  of  the  Parlia- 
ment of  Paris. 


EDUCATION.  345 

whose  humane  ideal  will  have  been  lowered  by  material 
anxieties,  or  by  too  prolonged  and  too  harsh  a  strug- 
gle for  existence ;  and  these  collective  bodies  will 
relax  university  authority ;  what  use  will  they  make 
of  it? 


346  TBE  EVOLUTION  OF  FRANCE. 


CHAPTER  XII. 

THE  NATION  ARMED. 

A  New  Spectacle.  —  Patriotism  throughout  the  Ages.  —  Its  Modern  For- 
mula.—  Contradictory  Problems. — A  Work  of  Perseverance  and  of 
Confidence.  —  The  Effect  on  the  Nation.  —  Officers  and  Soldiers. — 
Diverging  Tendencies.  —  A  Socialistic  Lesson  in  Things.  —  Ideal  and 
Patriotism. 

It  has  been  related  that  when,  in  the  port  of  Cron- 
stadt,  Alexander  III.  came  to  pay  a  visit  to  the  French 
fleet,  and  reviewed  the  crew  of  the  admiral's  ship,  he 
uttered  these  words,  which  were  repeated  to  a  French 
ear :  "  I  did  not  think  that  the  sailors  of  a  Republic 
could  have  such  discipline."  If  this  remark  was  not 
actually  made,  we  may  affirm  that  the  Emperor  of 
Russia  thought  it,  and,  with  him,  all  the  princes  and 
superior  officers  who  accompanied  him.  On  the  day 
when  the  imperial  host  of  the  French  Republic  received 
that  impressit)n,  its  founders,  the  men  of  will  and  per- 
severance who  had  erected  it  upon  ruins,  and  had  con- 
solidated it  amid  a  thousand  storms,  received  the  supreme 
reward  of  their  energy  and  their  devotion.  Certainly 
not  because  glory  and  military  conquests  were  the  chief 
aim  of  their  efforts,  or  because  they  had  set  their  am- 
bition on  creating  a  more  formidable  army  than  circum- 
stances demanded,  but  because  the  fact  of  their  having 
succeeded  in  creating  this  army  for  the  defence  of  their 
native  land,  and  the  protection  of  the  nation,  constitutes 
the  greatest  moral  victory  that  a  people  has  ever  won 
over  itself,  and  proves  that  its  patriotism  is  equal  to  all 
difficulties  and  superior  to  all  perils. 


THE  NATION  ARMED.  347 

Tocqueville,  calling  to  mind  the  dangerous  influence 
of  the  military  spirit  on  democracies,  expressed  a  truth 
which  no  one  had  yet  dreamed  of  contradicting.  The 
aristocratic  officer  of  former  days  was  a  person  of  con- 
sequence, independent  of  his  rank,  while  promotion  is 
the  only  source  of  consideration  and  honor  for  the  demo- 
cratic officer,  and  war  offers  the  only  opportunity  for 
promotion.  Thus  it  comes  about  that  the  armies  of 
nations  which  are  the  most  attached  to  peace  are  those 
which  are  the  most  anxious  for  war.  "  These  oppos- 
ing inclinations  of  the  nation  and  the  army  subject 
democratic  societies  to  great  dangers ;  their  armies 
often  display  uneasiness,  grumble,  and  are  dissatisfied 
with  their  lot."^  "This  weakness  of  democratic  re- 
publics in  crises,"  says  the  distinguished  writer,  in 
another  place,  "  is,  perhaps,  the  greatest  obstacle  which 
presents  itself  to  the  foundation  of  such  a  Republic  in 
Europe.  In  order  that  a  democratic  Republic  should 
exist  without  difficulty  among  a  European  people,  it 
would  be  necessary  that  it  should  be  established  simul- 
taneously with  all  the  rest.  If  it  should  ever  come  to 
pass  that  a  democratic  Republic,  like  that  of  the  United 
States,  were  founded  in  a  country  where  the  power  of  a 
single  person  had  already  been  established,  and  had  been 
accepted  among  the  customs,  like  administrative  centrali- 
zation in  the  laws,  I  do  not  hesitate  to  say  that,  in  such 
a  Republic,  despotism  would  become  more  intolerable 
than  in  any  of  the  absolute  monarchies  of  Europe."  ^ 

The  United  States  themselves  were  the  first  to  con- 
tradict Tocqueville.  Their  distant  situation  and  their 
isolation  seemed  to  favoj  the  maintenance  of  peace. 
But  in  their  midst  existed  a  germ  of  war,  which  armed 

1  A.  de  Tocqueville,  De  la  Dimocratie  en  Am^rique,  Vol.  III. 
■  2  A.  de  Tocqueville,  De  la  D^mocratie  en  Am^rique,  Vol.  II. 


348  THE  EVOLUTION   OF  FEANCE. 

against  each  other  the  two  halves  of  the  nation,  distinct 
in  race,  traditions,  and  interests.  After  that  gigantic 
struggle  of  four  years'  duration,  no  one  would  dare 
assert  that  dictatorship  is  impossible,  because  the  dic- 
tator was  there  at  hand,  with  a  party  ready  to  acclaim 
him,  and  no  scruple  to  stop  him.  It  came  within  a 
few  votes  of  the  people  abdicating  into  his  hands. 
Probably  the  dictatorship  would  not  have  lasted,  but 
how  many  disasters  it  might  have  accumulated  in  a 
short  time ! 

France  was  much  more  exposed  than  the  United 
States  ;  her  liberal  attempts  had  suffered  shipwreck, 
and,  on  two  occasions,  she  had  endured,  for  fairly 
long  periods,  the  yoke  of  a  single  man.  The  repub- 
lican system  of  government  of  1870  had  not,  more- 
over, had  time  to  harden ;  men  found  themselves 
forced  to  organize  the  army  simultaneously  with  lib- 
erty. It  was  an  alarming  task,  and  alarming  to  such  a 
degree  that  it  must  have  inspired  more  than  one  per- 
son with  secret  terror.  Was  there  no  way  of  elud- 
ing it  ?  Without  dreaming  of  disarmament,  was  it 
not  possible  to  hint  that,  under  the  new  rule,  military 
matters  would  be  relegated  to  the  background  ?  How 
greatly  would  the  release  from  this  anxiety  have 
facilitated  the  establishment  of  democratic  institu- 
tions !  But  the  republicans  repulsed  the  temptation. 
They  accepted  all  the  consequences,  all  the  difficul- 
ties of  the  situation.  Country  came  first,  the  Repub- 
lic second.  Their  example  was  followed,  and  a  very 
noble  and  very  simple  alliance  soon  was  sealed  be- 
tween them  and  their  adversaries.  Every  time  that 
the  professional  interests  of  the  army  were  at  stake, 
men  voted  as  Frenchmen,  without  distinction  of  party. 

This  result  is  due  to  the  transformation  of  patriot- 


THE  NATION  ARMED.  349 

ism,  whicli  has  become  a  sort  of  national  religion. 
This  religion  must  be  studied,  because  its  part  in 
the  present  period  has  been  so  great  that  we  may- 
compare  its  effects  on  the  moral  world  to  the  action 
which  the  practical  application  of  steam  and  elec- 
tricity have  exerted  upon  the  material  world.  Only, 
if  the  thing  is  new,  the  word  itself  is  old.  It  has 
so  often  been  employed  at  haphazard,  that  patriotism 
appears  like  an  untransformable  sentiment,  forming 
part  of  the  very  patrimony  of  humanity.  It  is  nat- 
ural for  man  to  respect  his  parents,  to  love  his  chil- 
dren ;  it  seems  no  less  natural  that  he  should  love 
his  country.  One  does  not  reflect  that  he  has  not 
always  had  a  country,  that  the  Judaic  tribe,  the 
Roman  family,  the  Greek  city,  the  Frank  kingship, 
were  not  in  the  least  the  equivalents  of  what  we 
to-day  call  country-fatherland. 

Ancient  Egypt  could  not  have  known  patriotism. 
"  Between  the  sea  and  the  first  cataract,  to  Philse, 
five  or  six  different  countries  could  be  mapped  out," 
writes  M.  Marius  Fontane.^  The  idea  of  fatherland 
could  not  be  formed  in  the  mind  of  such  a  people, 
and  had  the  notion  of  grandeur  through  unity  made 
its  way  into  the  brain  of  a  few,  the  rivalries  of  the 
great  would  have  combated  this  illogical  innovation. 
Thus,  "  as  soon  as  war  was  mentioned,  at  least  half 
the  men  whose  age  rendered  them  fit  for  service  made 
haste  to  take  refuge  in  the  mountains,  out  of  reach 
of  the  recruiting  agents."^  The  Jewish  people  knew 
patriotism  under  the  form  "  of  a  national  God,  iden- 
tified with  the  nation,  victorious  with  it,  vanquished 
with  it,  its  double,  the  personified  genius,  the  spirit 

i  Marius  Fontane,  Les  Sgyptes. 

2  Maspero,  Sous  le  Regne  de  Ramses  II. 


350  THE  EVOLUTION  OF  FRANCE. 

of  the  nation,  in  the  sense  which  savages  attribute  to 
the  word  sph'it."  ^  Greece  was  a  confederation  of  cities, 
over  which  soared  an  idea,  —  that  of  the  superiority  of 
the  race,  and  of  its  predestination.  That  alone  suffices 
to  efface,  at  times,  their  divergences,  to  cause  barriers 
to  fall,  and  to  raise  up  a  Greece  unified,  for  the  mo- 
ment, to  face  the  stranger ;  but  it  was  the  productions 
of  their  genius,  the  golden  legends  of  their  past,  which 
the  Greeks  loved  and  defended  against  the  "barba- 
rians." At  Rome  there  is  an  emblem,  a  sort  of  flag ; 
it  is  the  emblem  of  the  Roman  might,  of  that  power 
exercised  by  a  handful  of  citizens,  at  first  over  a  coun- 
try, then  over  a  collection  of  countries,  and,  at  last, 
over  a  whole  section  of  the  known  universe.  The  for- 
mula Senatus  populusque  Romanus  does  not  represent  a 
fatherland,  but  a  state  of  things.  The  Empire,  which 
comes  next,  is  not  a  nation  either  ;  it  is  an  administra- 
tion. Vercingetorix  is  a  patriot ;  he  has  a  presenti- 
ment of  a  moral  power  which  shall  be  formed  both 
from  the  soil  and  from  the  blood.  He  is  unable  to 
define  it,  and  obeys  it  instinctively.  He  is  still  too 
close  to  invasions  which  drag  masses  of  men  across 
continents,  and  deprive  them  of  all  idea  of  territorial 
stability,  all  notion  of  any  connection  whatever  between 
man  and  place,  of  a  secret  understanding  between  the 
earth  and  the  soul.  In  the  Middle  Ages  France  begins 
to  become  something  precise,  at  least  in  the  heart  of 
her  children.  "  She  flings  herself  into  the  crusade," 
charging  herself  "  with  the  actions  of  God  against  the 
infidel."  2  On  her  road  she  creates  kingdoms  and  prin- 
cipalities ;  Jerusalem,  Cyprus,  Athens,  Constantinople, 
have,  for  a  time,  French  sovereigns  ;   knights  go  and 

1  E.  Renan,  Histoire  du  Peuple  cV Israel,  Vol.  I. 

2  E.  Lavisse,  Vue  G^n^rale  de  V Histoire  de  V Europe. 


THE  NATION  ARMED.  351 

found  a  Christian  state  in  Portugal,  or  chase  the  Sara- 
cens and  the  Greeks  from  the  south  of  Italy.  The 
expansion  is  effected  in  the  name  of  a  religious,  feudal, 
chivalric  France.  But  men  like  Etienne  Marcel  are 
there,  to  demonstrate  that  the  true  idea  of  fatherland 
is  still  confused ;  that  culture  of  mind,  the  most  emi- 
nent qualities,  do  not  suffice  to  elevate  the  individual 
to  the  conception  of  the  collective  mass  to  which  he 
belongs.  It  is  rather  among  the  humble,  the  insignifi- 
cant, that  this  conception  exists  in  a  state  of  embryo. 
Not  to  mention  Jeanne  d'Arc,  who  remains  incompre- 
hensible through  the  nature  of  her  inspiration  even 
more  than  through  the  success  of  her  attempt,  have 
not  Guillaume  I'Aloue,  Philippe  Le  Cat,i  Bochier,  and 
^11  those  who  locally  take  part  in  the  national  deliver- 
ance, at  the  bottom  of  their  own  hearts  something  like 
the  sensation  of  fatherland  which  is  about  to  be  born  ? 
And,  later  on,  when  the  monarchy  has  become  the  cen- 
tral point,  when  "  the  loyalty  of  the  nobility  and  the 
love  of  the  people  towards  the  sovereign  take  the  place 
of  patriotism,"  2  in  the  obscure  ranks  of  the  soldiers 
who  die  for  dynastic  interests,  beyond  the  figure  of 
the  King  there  appears,  no  doubt,  that  of  country,  but 
uncertain,  without  precise  outlines,  without  determinate 
color.  They  divine  rather  than  see  it ;  yet,  neverthe- 
less, they  owe  to  it  the  consolation  of  feeling  that  their 
blood,  shed  in  thankless  causes,  will  fertilize  the  future. 
Patriotic  monarchs,  like  Louis  XI.  and  Charles  V.,  are 
no  more.  Louis  XIV.  loves  France,  as  Napoleon  will 
love  her,  later  on,  because  he  possesses  her,  and  not 
because  he  springs  from  her.  The  great  chieftains 
change  their  country ;    they  go  and  come,  from  one 

1  Simeon  Luce,  La  France  pendant  la  Guerre  de  Cent  Ans. 

2  E.  Lavisse,  Vue  Ginerale  de  I'Histoire  de  I'Europe, 


352  THE  EVOLUTION   OF  FRANCE. 

nation  to  another,  practising  the  trade  of  military  and 
diplomatic  adventurers,  like  Eugene  de  Savoie  and 
Mazarin.  Then,  on  the  approach  of  the  Revolution, 
when  issue  forth  countries  in  their  modern  form,  the 
enlightened  classes  which  detach  themselves  from  roy- 
alty rise  to  the  idea  of  humanity  as  they  seek  their 
path.  "Our  writers  of  the  eighteenth  century,"  says 
M.  Lavisse,  "have  rediscovered  humanity,  lost  since 
the  days  of  Plato,  of  Seneca,  and  of  Marcus  Aurelius, 
or,  at  least,  replaced  during  the  Middle  Ages  by  the 
ecclesiastical  idea  of  Christianity,  and,  later  on,  by  the 
political  idea  of  Europe."^ 

In  Germany  it  is  the  same.  "The  question  is  always 
of  humanity  ;  the  idea  of  country  is  lacking.  "^  Leib- 
nitz conceived  it  and  expressed  it,  but  its  pan-Germanic 
tendencies  found  no  echo ;  he  spoke  a  language  which 
the  masses  did  not  understand.  Lessing  writes  that 
"  the  reputation  of  patriot  is  the  last  "  to  which  he 
would  aspire ;  he  proclaims  himself  "  a  citizen  of  the 
world."  "Country,  patriotism,  are  mere  words,"  writes 
Goethe,  in  1772,  "  nothing  but  words.  If  we  find  a  place 
in  the  world  where  we  can  be  tranquil  with  our  posses- 
sions, a  field  to  nourish  us,  a  house  to  shelter  us,  have 
we  not  there  a  country  ?  "  ^  "  Patriotic  interest,"  writes 
Schiller,  in  1789,*  "  has  a  value  only  for  those  nations 
which  are  not  yet  mature,  for  the  youth  of  the  world." 
Kant  and  Fichte  mark  a  slow  transition  ;  Stein  alone 
gets  a  clear  glimpse  of  the  German  fatherland.^  But 
it  is  in  1814,  and  he  is  still  so  far  in  advance  of  his 
compatriots,  that  the  whole  of  that  portion  of  his  work 

1  E.  Lavisse,  Vue  G^tidrale  de  VHistoire  de  I'Europe. 

2  Levy-Bruhl,  L'Allemagne  depuis  Leibnitz. 

*  Ayinonces  Savantes  de  Francfort. 

*  Letter  to  Koerner. 

6  L€vy-Bruhl,  L'Allemagne  depuis  Leibnitz. 


THE  NATION  ARMED.  353 

remains  incomprehensible.  It  is  Hegel  who  will  pro- 
claim the  State,  ''  the  absolute  reality,"  and  will  say  that 
"  the.  individual  has  no  objectivity,  verity,  or  morality 
except  at  such  time  as  he  is  a  member  of  the  State." 
Among  us,  in  1788,  the  patriots  keep  their  eyes  fixed 
on  the  States-General  which  are  about  to  assemble  ;  they 
await  the  hour  to  dare.  Among  the  renunciations  of 
the  night  of  August  4,  many  are  sincere.  This  is  plain 
when  hours  of  gloom  arrive.  All  do  not  flee.  Those  in 
whom  the  notion  of  the  modern  fatherland  is  completely 
formed  feel  where  their  duty  lies,^  and  perform  it.  They 
are,  it  is  true,  only  a  handful.  The  great  majority  emi- 
grates ;  among  the  emigrants  some  seek  only  safety, 
and  lead,  outside  of  France,  a  life  of  privation  and  toil 
not  devoid  of  dignity,  but  the  rest  bear  arms  against 
their  country,  and  willingly  agree  to  restrict  its  boun- 
daries for  the  benefit  of  the  strangers  who  shall  aid  them 
to  restore  the  throne.  Among  the  latter  are  crimi- 
nals who  know  what  they  are  about;  there  are,  also, 
many  stupid  persons,  who  have  understood  nothing, 
learned  nothing,  and  who  continue  to  see  in  France 
only  the  domain  of  the  King  whose  humble  servitors 
they  are.  Every  one  agrees,  at  the  present  day,  in  rec- 
ognizing that  country  was  on  the  side  of  the  Conven- 
tion. "  In  vain  were  the  revolutionists  disciples  of  the 
philosophers,  and  in  vain  did  they  follow  general  prin- 
ciples and  make  laws  of  pure  reason ;  they  declared  the 
national  soil  sacred  and  indivisible,  treated  invasion  as 

1  General  de  Marbot,  at  the  beginning  of  his  M^moires,  devotes  several 
lines  to  his  father ;  behind  this  physiognomy,  barely  discerned,  one  divines 
an  "advanced"  mind,  which  accepts  patriotic  duty  quite  naturally,  al- 
though he  does  not  espouse  all  the  illusions  of  his  contemporaries.  More- 
over, the  career  of  that  Comte  de  Virieu  who  played  so  noble  a  part  at 
the  siege  of  Lyons,  and  always  placed  country  above  royalty,  has  been 
described  with  a  desire  to  excuse  his  liberalism.  (See  the  Roman  d'un 
Royaliste,  by  the  Marquis,  Costa  de  Beauregard.) 
2a 


354  THE  EVOLUTION   OF  FRANCE 

a  sacrilege,  proclaimed  with  tragic  enthusiasm  and  the 
voice  of  the  alarm-bell  the  duty  of  all  toward  their 
country  in  danger."  ^  "  The  principle  of  all  sovereignty 
is  lodged  in  the  nation  .  .  .  ;  the  law  is  the  expression 
of  the  general  will.  All  the  citizens  have  the  right  to 
contribute,  either  in  person,  or  through  their  proxies, 
to  its  formation,"  says  the  Declaration  of  Rights.  The 
nation,  thus  defined,  presents  an  absolute  contrast  to  the 
States  of  days  gone  by. 

Henceforth  true  patriotism  exists.  In  America,  it 
sprang  spontaneously  from  the  very  nature  of  things. 
"  In  proportion  as  conditions  become  more  equal,  each 
man  in  particular  grows  more  like  all  the  others, — fee- 
bler, smaller.  One  becomes  used  no  longer  to  regard 
the  citizens,  and  to  consider  only  the  people  ;  one  for- 
gets individuals,  and  remembers  only  the  species."'^  In 
Europe,  it  was  the  French  revolutionists  who  created 
it,  by  reaction  against  the  old  regimen.  But  the  Revo- 
lution was  exhausted  by  its  own  effort,  and  while  other 
peoples  are  slowly  assimilating  the  idea  of  fatherland 
and  the  principles  of  liberty  which  France  instilled  into 
them,  France  herself  distorts  the  one  and  forgets  the 
others.  The  imperial  epic  threw  everything  into  con- 
fusion, embroiled  everything.  It  dazzled  eyes  and  dis- 
ordered minds.  A  form  of  patriotism  appears,  brutal, 
unjust,  despotic,  which  surrounds  itself  with  hatred  and 
jealousies,  and  will  engender  terrible  reprisals;  the  right 
of  nations  is  violated,  institutions  are  overthrown,  glory 
is  fabricated  with  blood  and  injustice.  Henceforth,  to 
be  a  patriot  will  consist  less  in  elevating  oneself  than 
in  humbling  others.  Patriotism  will  be  founded  upon 
scorn,  instead  of  resting  upon  "respect  for  countries." 

1  E.  Lavisse,  Vue  G^n6rale  de  I'Histoire  de  I'Europe. 

2  A.  de  Tocqueville,  De  la  D^mocratie  en  Am6rique. 


THE  NATION  ARMED.  355 

Thus  understood,  a  special  name  has  been  conferred 
on  it ;  it  is  called  chauvinism.  The  chauvin  loves 
noise,  vain  protestations,  grand  phrases,  magnanimous 
attitudes,  irreconcilable  poses.  He  does  not  in  the  least 
understand  "  the  long  memory  of  ancestors,  the  joy  of 
meeting  again  our  own  soul  in  their  thoughts  and  in 
their  actions,  in  their  history  and  in  their  legends  ;  the 
joy  of  forming  a  part  of  a  whole  whose  origin  is  lost  in 
the  mist,  and  whose  future  is  undefined. "  ^  Sometimes 
the  national  hymn  excites  him  ;  but  he  does  not  hear  its 
melody  singing  constantly  at  the  bottom  of  his  soul. 
On  great  occasions,  the  flag  arouses  his  enthusiasm ; 
but  he  does  not  preserve  the  reflection  of  its  colors  all 
day  long,  in  the  depths  of  his  eyes.  Very  different  is 
the  true  patriot.  His  portrait  has  been  admirably 
sketched  by  M.  de  Vogiie,  in  a  speech  made  at  the  dis- 
tribution of  prizes  at  the  College  Stanislas.  "What- 
ever may  be  your  varied  pursuits,"  said  the  eminent 
academician  to  his  young  auditors,  "  I  know  what 
object  in  common  will  give  you  the  most  pleasure :  it 
is  the  greatness  of  France.  When  you  have  an  active 
profession,  ask  yourselves  each  evening :  What  have  I 
done  to-day  for  the  greatness  of  France  ?  Try  to  set 
down  some  action  to  this  special  account  every  day, 
and,  during  this  moment  of  examination,  listen  to  what 
the  old  mother,  who  surrounds  you  with  her  arms  in 
the  shadow,  is  saying: — Child,  I  have  made  thee 
with  long-protracted  sufferings ;  for  the  last  fifteen 
centuries  my  fairest  sons  have  toiled  to  prepare  for 
thee  the  supreme  pride  of  bearing  our  name ;  to  me 
thou  owest  "the  sweet,  free  cradle  where  life  smiles 
more  radiantly  than  elsewhere ;  thou  goest  forth  to 
pursue  thy  particular   aim,  to  seek  thy  contentment, 

1  E.  Lavisse,  Discoxirs  aux  ^tudiants. 


356  THE  EVOLUTION  OF  FRANCE. 

ease,  glory,  riches ;  nothing  can  be  more  legitimate. 
But  subtract  for  me  something  from  thine  effort.  I 
ask  of  thee  not  merely  the  offer  of  thy  blood  in  great 
perils,  that  is  too  easy.  What  I  ask  of  thee  is  more 
difficult,  —  the  daily  sacrifice  of  an  idle  inclination,  of  a 
prejudice,  of  an  intolerance,  of  a  part  of  thine  individ- 
ual tastes  and  desires,  that,  at  this  cost,  thou  mayest  give 
me  the  elements  which  are  indispensable  to  my  strength, 
union,  private  peace,  the  certainty  of  being  obeyed." 

Of  patriotism  thus  understood,  the  Republic  has 
made,  in  France,  a  sort  of  dogma ;  she  imposes  it ;  she 
regards  it  as  a  crime  not  to  believe  in  it.  How  will 
this  be  judged  by  our  descendants  ?  Everything  is 
evolution  in  this  universe,  whether  it  be  a  question  of 
material  conditions  or  of  moral  laws.  Patriotism,  like 
religion,  will  change  its  nature  again.  Will  it  embrace 
certain  groups  of  nations,  then  humanity  as  a  whole, 
regarded  from  a  certain  philosophical  angle  ?  No  one 
can  presume  to  say.  But  one  thing  is  certain,  that  it 
represents,  for  the  present  time,  a  force  of  incalculable 
range,  much  greater  than  modern  societies  have  had  at 
their  disposal ;  and  it  is  probable  that  none  of  the 
larger  forms  which  it  may  assume  in  the  future  will  be 
as  productive  of  enthusiasm.  The  former  were  too 
narrow ;  the  latter  will  be  too  vast. 

We  have  mentioned  that  the  republicans,  nobly  ac- 
cepting the  responsibility  of  the  faults  which  others 
had  committed,  renounced  the  prospect,  dear  to  many 
among  them,  of  suppressing  standing  armies,  and  re- 
placing them  with  national  militia  troops.  But  what- 
ever may  have  been  the  sentiment  of  self-abnegation 
which  dictated  to  them  this  conduct,  the  problem  re- 
mained none  the  less  arduous,  —  to  make  the  Republic 


THE  NATION  ARMED.  357 

and  the  army  live  side  by  side  in  the  beginning  ;  one 
by  the  other,  later  on.  It  was  necessary  to  combine 
elements  which  seemed  irreconcilable  :  the  annual  vote 
of  a  heavy  war  appropriation  with  the  revival  of  the 
national  wealth  ;  a  very  powerful  and  highly  respected 
military  power  with  a  civil  power  which  could  live 
only  by  moral  force,  and  had  not  yet  had  time  to 
acquire  it ;  professional  science  and  skill  with  the 
number  of  units;  a  term  of  service  sufficiently  long, 
and  as  equal  as  possible  for  all,  the  liberal  professions 
being  duly  protected ;  a  system  of  foreign  politics 
necessarily  pacific  and  circumspect  with  the  ambitions 
and  ardors  which  flow  from  permanent  contact  with 
arms ;  soldiers  who,  springing  from  the  bosom  of  the 
nation,  were  to  bear  with  them  to  the  regiment  the 
republican  idea,  with  leaders  many  of  whom  retained, 
at  the  bottom  of  their  hearts,  sympathy  with  the  sys- 
tems of  government  now  vanished,  and  remained  im- 
bued with  the  spirit  and  the  traditions  of  monarchical 
armies. 

Again,  it  was  Gambetta  who  dictated  the  course  to 
be  pursued.  His  determination  not  to  permit  the  intro- 
duction of  politics  into  the  army  was  manifested  from 
the  beginning,  with  entire  clearness.  When  he  spoke 
of  the  army,  — it  was  at  Belleville,  on  that  August  12, 
1881,  when  he  gave  proof  of  every  sort  of  courage,  — 
it  was  felt  that,  leaving  behind  him  on  the  threshold 
his  calculations  as  a  politician,  his  passions  as  member 
of  a  party,  he  penetrated  into  a  temple,  as  it  were, 
where  dwelt  the  very  soul  of  the  fatherland ;  his  lan- 
guage and  his  gestures  expressed  respect  and  faith. 
The  command  was  obeyed,  because  it  was  given  with 
authority  and  with  a  loftiness  which  placed  it  beyond 
all  dispute.     There  were  revolts.     When  he  tried  to 


358  THE  EVOLUTION  OF  FRANCE. 

place  General  Miribel  at  the  head  of  the  general  staff, 
Gambetta  alarmed  his  followers.  Incapable  of  looking 
afar  and  aloft  like  their  leader,  they  did  not  understand 
•that  the  army  would,  willy-nilly,  republicanize  the  men 
who  should  consecrate- to  it  their  existence,  and  that 
solely  through  the  feff^ct  of  the  sentiment  of  duty. 
Other  incidents,  bn  divers  occasions,  gave  rise  to  fears 
as  to  the  duration  of  that  harmonious  equilibrium  which 
was  the  amazement  and  the  admiration  of  Europe.  It 
was  feared  lest  the  army  should  compromise  peace,  or 
that  jDolitics  should  compromise  the  army ;  but  no ! 
nothing  weakened  the  discipline  of  the  soldiers,  or  the 
devotion  of  the  citizens.  At  times  of  the  harshest 
quarrels,  of  the  hottest  electoral  battles,  the  military 
question  in  its  essence,  if  not  in  its  details,  remained 
above  party,  where  Gambetta  had  raised  it  aloft  on 
that  first  day,  in  the  place  where  nations  deposit  their 
arks  of  the  covenant. 

With  still  greater  wisdom,  those  who  governed  sup- 
pressed the  anti-republican  remarks  which  escaped  the 
generals  between  two  manoeuvres.  The  ministers  and 
the  head  of  the  State  himself  contented  themselves 
with  the  rather  curt  and  sometimes  rather  disdainful 
salutes  which  they  received  from  the  military  authori- 
ties." '•■  For  a  long  time  the  name  of  the  Republic  was 
omitted  from  the  formal  addresses  and  the  orders  of 
the  day  5  certain  radical  newspapers  waxed  indignant 
over  this,  and  raised  a  cry  of  treason ;  in  high  places 
confident  serenity  was  maintained.  It  was  known  that 
the  lawyers  and  men  of  humble  extraction,  raised  to  the 
highest  posts  in  the  State,  often  by  talent,  but  some- 
times, also,  by  luck,  must  lack  prestige  with  the  gen- 
erals ;  nevertheless,  no  one  doubted  the  absolute  devotion 
and  patriotism  of  the  latter.     The  day  came  when  Presi- 


Wl.    SADI-CARNOT,    FOURTH    PRESIDENT    OF    THE    REPUBLIC. 


Ui'  THE        >^ 

rui^IVBESITTl 


THE  NATION  ARMED.  359 

dent  Carnot,  at  the  end  of  the  grand  manoeuvres,  could 
review  the  troops,  and  when  the  enthusiastic  crowd 
hailed  him  with  acclamations.  The  higher  officers 
grouped  themselves  about  him,  touched,  at  last,  by 
the  enlightened  solicitude,  the  unalterable  confidence 
shown  by  the  Republic  to  its  soldiers ;  and  when  the 
Republic  gave  the  French  army  the  Russian  army  as 
its  sister,  their  hearts  were  won ;  they  forgot  that  the 
commander-in-chief  was  a  civilian  ;  moreover,  destiny 
had  in  store  for  him,  as  recompense,  the  death  of  a 
soldier. 

During  the  five-and-twenty  years  that  France  has 
lived  in  a  state  of  armed  peace,  her  regiments  have 
been  renewed  sufficiently  often  to  permit  of  one's  mak- 
ing an  attempt  to  form  a  general  judgment  as  to  the 
results  attained ;  results  numerous  and  sufficiently  un- 
expected, on  one  point,  at  least.  Three  classes  of  citi- 
zens have  passed  under  the  flags,  —  peasants,  working- 
men,  and  men  of  the  middle  class ;  and  many  genera- 
tions of  officers  have  risen  to  the  intermediate  grades, 
either  from  the  schools  or  from  the  ranks.  We 
may  reckon  that,  below  the  grade  of  commander,  the 
past  is  mingled  with  the  present,  so  far  as  the  influ- 
ences experienced  are  concerned,  while  above,  it  is, 
indeed,  the  new  army.  This  army  is,  in  origin, 
national,  and  founded  on  equality,  in  the  highest  de- 
gree. If  there  remained,  under  the  shelter  of  the  petty 
provincial  peculiarities  which  still  exist,  any  leaven  of 
real  discord  between  the  men  of  the  North  and  the 
South,  of  the  East  and  the  West,  it  has  melted  away 
through  contact.  Unity  was  effected  long  ago ;  the 
finishing  touch  has  been  put  to  it ;  it  has,  in  a  manner, 
been  polished.  Prejudices  have  grown  weaker  ;  minds 
have  opened  to  new  conceptions ;  local  interests  have 


360  THE  EVOLUTION   OF  FBANCE. 

lost  their  importance.  The  result  has  been  a  great  good 
for  the  nation  in  general  ;  the  peasant  needed  to  be 
withdrawn  from  the  stupefying  influence  of  the  soil ; 
the  workingman  from  the  deceptive  mirages  of  the 
theorists  who  indoctrinate  him ;  the  man  of  the  middle 
class  from  the  isolation  which  his  rank  or  his  fortune 
create  for  him.  The  promiscuousness  of  the  regiment 
has  effected  this ;  the  tasks  accomplished,  the  punish- 
ments undergone,  the  forces  expended  side  by  side,  in 
a  perpetual  rivalry  of  good  humor  and  energy,  have 
amalgamated  the  j^oung  men,  taking  away  from  them, 
for  a  space,  the  notion  of  all  that  divides  them. 

But,  individually,  the  physical  and  moral  effect  has 
not  been  the  same  for  all.  For  the  middle  classes  obli- 
gatory service  has  been  the  safety-anchor.  Rendered 
anaemic  by  the  exclusively  cerebral  and  anti-hygienic 
education  which  he  has  received,  the  young  Frenchman 
of  the  well-to-do  classes  often  possesses  just  enough 
strength  and  health  to  resist  the  first  fatigues  of  mili- 
tary life,  but  he  emerges  therefrom  transformed,  unrec- 
ognizable, hardened,  and  rested,  his  limbs  strengthened, 
and  his  brain  soothed.  The  novelty  of  his  existence, 
the  desire  to  become  a  non-commissioned  officer  as  soon 
as  possible,  have  been  his  moral  safeguards,  and  of  his 
service  under  the  flag  he  preserves  the  memory  as  of 
something  rough  and  healthy  which  has  deliciously 
refreshed  his  life.^  The  peasant  and  the  workingman 
do  not  draw  from  it  the  same  advantages;  they  have 
not,  like  their  comrade,  excess  of  mental  action  which 
makes  them  appreciate  the  physical  fatigue  that  is 
imposed  upon  them ;  they  serve  to  the  best  of  their 
ability,  but  without  taking  a  very  keen  interest  in  what 

1  The  effect  might  be  made  greater  by  a  more  intelligent  and  better 
superintended  exercise  of  hygienic  laws. 


THE  NATION  ARMED.  361 

they  learn,  and  their  hours  of  leisure  are  employed  in 
a  lamentable  manner.  When  work  is  over,  they  are 
turned  out  into  the  street.  Where  can  they  go  ?  What 
are  they  to  do?  No  one  cares  anything  about  them. 
Their  soldier's  task  is  done ;  no  one  gives  a  thought  to 
the  fact  that  they  are  men,  and  that  the  "  whole  life  " 
is  due  to  them  during  the  whole  time  of  their  stay  in 
the  regiment.  The  officer  rarely  has  any  perception  of 
that  part  of  his  mission.^  He  is  entirely  absorbed  in 
his  professional  duties.  In  some  of  the  cavalry  regi- 
ments there  is  even  a  tendency  to  rate  the  horses  before 
the  men ;  in  any  case,  the  officer  looks  at  the  men  only 
from  the  point  of  view  of  the  profession,  and  of  the 
services  which  they  wull  have  to  render  to  the  country. 
He  would  feel  intimidated,  and  think  himself  ridiculous, 
if  he  had  to  undertake  the  part  of  educator.  But  that 
is  precisely  what  is  needed.  Never  has  a  finer  field  for 
education  been  thrown  open  to  persons  of  good-will. 
If  garrison  life  is  sometimes  monotonous,  if  one  feels, 
at  times,  exasperated  and  discouraged  by  the  perpetual 
preparation  for  a  war  which  always  recedes  into  the  dis- 
tance, what  a  source  of  interest,  of  emotions,  of  satisfac- 
tion, would  not  one  find  in  the  effort  to  exercise  souls  as 
well  as  muscles  !  With  such  a  task  to  accomplish,  what 
cause  for  fear  would  there  be  in  that  particularist  spirit 
which,  more  than  is  generally  suspected,  injures  the 
army,  by  sometimes  uniting  in  over-close  bonds,  in 
routine,  the  officers  of  one  branch,  of  the  same  rank,  of 
the  same  origin  ! 

If  the  army  is,  in  fact,  morally  a  unit,  it  must  be 
admitted  that  the  body  of  its  officers  is  professionally 
divided.      Infantrymen,  cavalry,  artillerymen,  cherish 

^  See  the  celebrated  article  which  appeared  in  the  Revue  des  Deux 
Mondes  under  the  title :  "  Du  role  social  de  I'officier." 


362  THE  EVOLUTION  OF  FRANCE. 

complaints  and  prejudices  against  each  other.  They  are 
exclusive,  inclined  to  look  at  things  in  a  petty  way. 
Sometimes  these  sentiments,  which  ought  to  exist  only 
in  the  subaltern  ranks,  —  where  one  would  be  more  dis- 
posed to  regard  them  as  excusable,  —  are  displayed  at 
the  very  summit  of  the  hierarchy,  and  exert  an  influ- 
ence on  the  acts  of.  the  minister  himself.  The  spirit  of 
comradeship  thus  assumes  a  regrettable  and  injurious 
form.  As  for  the  engineers'  corps  and  the  commissariat 
department,  the  "  fighting  "  officers  regard  them  as  being 
of  a  distinctly  inferior  rank,  occupied  in  performing 
the  domestic  service  of  the  army.  They  do  not  think 
much  of  the  officers  of  the  reserve.  They  look  upon 
the  latter  as  vulgar  "  civilians "  who  will  never  be 
turned  into  military  men  by  either  the  regulation  term 
or  their  too  easily  acquired  gold  braid. 

Another  cause  of  discord  has  been  introduced  among 
them :  it  is  science.  The  immensity  of  the  effort  ac- 
complished by  the  peoples  of  Europe,  to  enable  them 
to  put  in  the  field,  should  occasion  require,  innumerable 
masses  of  powerfully  armed  men,  has  led  to  the  creation 
of  what  may  be  called  the  trade  of  war.  Everything 
has  converged  towards  a  double  end:  to  increase  the 
action  of  death-dealing  engines  of  war,  to  facilitate 
the  movements  of  troops ;  to  augment  the  force  of  the 
blows,  and  the  motive  powers  of  the  combatants.  Hence 
the  officer's  sphere  of  interest  is  immoderately  enlarged. 
Everything  connected  with  railways,  balloons,  elec- 
tricity, chemistry,  mechanics,  is  within  his  province. 
The  scientific  inventions  which  are  not  of  utility  in 
preparation  for  battle,  or  in  battle  itself,  are  easily  reck- 
oned up.  They  are  piled  up,  one  upon  another,  throwing 
strategy  into  the  background.  There  is  only  one  thing 
whose  place  they  cannot  take :  personal  courage,  cool- 


THE  NATION  ARMED.  363 

ness,  bravery.  And  behold,  two  types  of  officer  im- 
mediately find  themselves  face  to  face,  and  little  fitted 
to  collaborate  in  the  same  work :  the  laborious  officer 
utilizes  the  leisure  of  peace  to  acquire  as  much  knowl- 
edge as  possible,  certain  that  he  will  always  find  a 
use  for  it;  the  officer  of  active  temperament  tolerates 
in  garrison  life  only  that  which  reminds  him  of  the  life 
of  camps  and  disdains  the  purely  intellectual  part  of 
his  task.  The  same  diversity  exists  in  the  sea-army 
between  the  man  who  aspires  only  to  plough  the  seas, 
and  the  man  who  aims  at  guiding  torpedo-boats  or  seeks 
the  practical  formula  of  a  submarine  vessel. 

Neither  sort  can  endure  a  long  period  of  peace. 
Waiting,  necessarily,  entails  lassitude.  Therefore,  un- 
less a  European  war  be  provoked,  one  must  reckon  upon 
a  relaxation  in  the  zeal  of  officers.  This  relaxation  would, 
infallibly,  have  come  about,  had  it  not  been  for  the 
colonial  expeditions,  on  the  one  hand,  —  Tunis,  Tonkin, 
Dahomey,  —  to  make  the  impulsive  learn  patience  ;  on 
the  other,  a  rather  large  military  appropriation  to  per- 
mit of  incessantly  experimenting,  of  modifying,  of  im- 
proving, and  thus  keeping  up  the  zeal  of  the  workers 
and  seekers.  The  often  undecided  attitude  of  the  Ger- 
man government  must  also  be  noted,  always  aggressive 
as  to  one  part  of  German  opinion.  The  menace  has 
been  diminished,  at  times,  but  it  has  never  completely 
ceased.  Had  it  been  more  restrained,  more  unalterable, 
France  would  have  become  enervated,  in  the  long  run  ; 
had  it  been  less  so,  relaxation  would  have  supervened. 
Thus  it  will  be  seen  what  service  Germany  has  ren- 
dered us  by  maintaining  the  French  army  in  a  per- 
manent state  of  moral  mobilization,  so  to  speak,  and 
thereby  giving  to  the  Republic  the  time  and  the  means 
to   establish   itself   solidly.       Without   the    army,  the 


364  THE  EVOLUTION   OF  FRANCE. 

Republic  would  have  been  weak  abroad,  and  in  France 
a  government  which  is  weak  abroad  has  no  future. 
With  the  army,  on  the  contrary,  the  Republic  ran  the 
risk  of  being  ruined  at  home,  for  the  benefit  of  some  dic- 
tatorial power  or  other.  The  consciousness  of  the  peril 
which  existed  on  our  frontiers  alone  has  had  the  power 
to  discipline  the  nation. 

That,  it  is  true,  is  a  service  of  negative  value.  It 
could  not  enter  into  the  plans  of  the  victor  to  aid  the 
vanquished  to  recover  his  rank,  and  we  have  seen  that 
if  M.  de  Bismarck  showed  himself  favorable  to  the  Re- 
public, it  was  because  he  deemed  it  less  capable  than 
the  monarchy  of  setting  about  the  revival  of  France. 
Too  late  he  perceived  his  error.  But  Germany's  in- 
fluence in  turning  France  into  a  military  power  has 
had  two  other  consequences,  one  of  which  has  given 
rise  to  numerous  dissertations,  while  the  other  seems 
to  escape  notice.  The  first  is  the  excessive  augmen- 
tation of  the  taxes  which  weigh  upon  the  nation  be- 
cause of  obligatory  armament.  Germany,  it  is  true, 
suffers  therefrom  as  well  as  France,  and  more  than  she, 
as  its  wealth  is  less  considerable,  and  its  credit  less 
robust.  The  second  is  the  progressive  habituation  of 
the  citizen  to  socialistic  organization,  and  this  habitua- 
tion is  going  on  more  rapidly  in  France  than  in  Ger- 
many, because  the  French  army  is  more  democratic, 
and  more  imbued  with  equality  than  the  German  army. 
When  socialism  is  in  question,  people  never  seem  to 
think  of  anything  but  propaganda  by  the  idea ;  but 
propaganda  by  the  form  is  far  more  active.  Men  are 
anxious  to  know  whether  the  diffusion  of  theories  is 
rapid  or  slow ;  they  forget  to  observe  whether  their 
practical  application  is  partial  or  local.  The  socialistic 
idea   meets,  perhaps,  one   adversary  out  of  ten  ;    the 


THE  NATION  ARMED.  365 

hostility  of  the  nine  others  arises  from  the  fact  that 
they  believe  in  the  impossibility  of  applying  it.  But 
it  is  difficult  not  to  perceive  that,  by  becoming  a  real- 
ity, the  doctrine  of  the  armed  nation,  so  long  treated 
as  chimerical,  has  done  more  than  any  other  sort  of 
preaching  to  aid  the  advent  of  socialism. ^ 

The  organization  of  France,  at  the  present  time,  is 
unique.  Nothing  of  the  sort  has  ever  existed ;  it  has 
never  even  been  admitted  that  it  could  exist.  Russia 
and  Germany  are  military  monarchies.  France  is  a 
democracy  which  has  not  war  as  its  object,  which,  on 
the  contrary,  is  attached  to  the  labors  of  peace,  and 
maintains  in  the  first  rank  of  her  anxieties  the  develop- 
ment of  her  intellectual  resources,  of  her  wealth,  of  her 
social  improvement.  But  the  citizens  of  this  democracy 
have  consented,  for  the  last  twenty  years,  to  deduct,  for 
the  collective  good,  a  heavy  share  of  their  possessions, 
of  their  activity,  of  their  liberty,  and  this  consent  is  so 
unanimous,  and  so  definite,  that  the  young  Frenchman 
feels  a  sort  of  solace  to  his  conscience  in  satisfying  a 
draconian  law  which  his  high  spirits  and  his  good-will 
incessantly  ratify.  On  entering  the  army,  he  knows 
that,  barring  unforeseen  circumstances,  he  will  not  have 
to  fight ;  but  he  prepares  to  defend  his  native  land. 
The  confidence  of  the  country  is  made  up,  in  part,  of 
his  strength  and  his  zeal,  and  it  is  enough  to  pay  it  for 
its  trouble. 

Suppose,  now,  that  the  country,  no  longer  threatened 
by  dynastic  ambitions,  asks  him  to  enrich  her  instead 
of  to  defend  her,  to  wield  an  implement  for  her  in  place 
of  a  weapon  ;  suppose  that  military  service  should  as- 

1  See  in  the  Deutsche  Revue,  March  1,  1893,  a  very  curious  letter  from 
Baron  de  Courcel,  former  ambassador  of  France  to  Berlin,  in  reply  to  an 
inquiry  as  to  the  possibility  of  disarming. 


866  THE  EVOLUTION   OF  FRANCE. 

sume  a  distinctly  industrial  character  (and  the  trans- 
formation is  not,  perhaps,  as  distant  or  as  delicate  to 
effect  as  you  think),  what  change  will  have  taken 
place?  From  the  moment  that  it  is  a  service  com- 
manded in  the  name  of  France.,  to  go  and  make  a 
machine,  to  set  up  a  timber-work,  to  mix  mortar,  is, 
at  least,  quite  as  noble  as  to  clean  out  a  stable,  to  fur- 
bish up  a  belt-buckle,  or  to  black  boots.  If  the  love  of 
country  has  been  strong  enough  to  turn  out  so  many 
good  soldiers  from  young  men  of  such  diverse  origins, 
situations,  habits,  and  intelligence,  who  will  dare  to 
say  that  the  same  love  of  country  will  not  be  able,  in 
case  of  need,  to  turn  out  from  them  good  workmen  ? 
Given  the  habits  of  discipline  and  obedience  acquired 
in  the  army  by  the  young  generations,  we  may  affirm 
that  two-thirds  of  the  nation  are  ready  to  accept  indus- 
trial service  as  soon  as  it  is  established. 

Our  military  organization  is,  therefore,  for  the  French 
people,  an  immense  lesson  in  socialistic  things.  Only, 
if  the  socialists  wish  to  have  the  doctrines  which  are 
dear  to  them  draw  profit  therefrom,  they  ought  not  to 
lose  sight  of  the  fact  that  this  organization  rests,  in 
part,  upon  self-devotion,  abnegation,  and  the  spirit  of 
sacrifice,  in  part  upon  the  love  of  country.  "  Ideal  and 
Patriotism  "  ought,  then,  to  be  the  countersign.  Under 
the  present  circumstances,  given  the  state  of  soul  of  the 
nation  and  the  vast  experiment  which  is  in  progress, 
the  socialists  could  not  commit  a  greater  mistake  than 
to  insist  on  the  material  character  of  the  reforms  which 
they  desire  to  accomplish,  and  to  accept  the  compromis- 
ing support  of  the  internationalists  and  the  men  with- 
out a  country. 


IDEAS  AND  HABITS.  367 


CHAPTER    XIII. 

IDEAS  AND  HABITS. 

The  Survival  of  Ideas.  — Foreign  Judgments  on  France.  — The  Worship  of 
Form.  —  Unhealthy  Scientific  and  Literary  Stagnation.  —  Infiueuce  of 
Democracy  on  Letters  and  Language.  — The  Awakening:  Taine  and 
Renan.  —  Retaliation  on  Immorality.  —  The  French  Family  and  the 
French  Woman.  —  Decrease  of  Population. — The  Law  of  Succession, 
and  Malthusianism. 

The  task  of  searching  out  the  connection  between 
the  ideas  and  the  customs  of  a  people  has  often  been 
undertaken.  Such  a  task,  arduous  enough  when  it  re- 
lates to  the  past,  really  surpasses  the  power  of  contem- 
poraries. The  connections  exist ;  they  are  close ;  but 
in  order  to  know  them,  it  would  be  necessary  to  be  able 
to  determine  what  are  the  ideas  of  the  people  whom 
one  wishes  to  study,  at  some  precise  moment  of  their 
history.  Precisely  therein  lies  the  difficulty.  It  has 
been  said  that  "  survival  is  a  law  in  the  psychology  of 
peoples.  Ideas  formerly  dominant  continue  to  express 
themselves  long  after  they  have  lost  their  efficacy,  and 
a  man  continues  to  employ  the  same  language,  although 
he  may  have  begun  to  act,  sometimes  without  being 
aware  of  it,  in  accordance  with  other  principles."^ 
This  truth  has  often  been  misunderstood.  It  does  not 
apply  to  the  great  movements  of  reform,  which  have 
agitated  the  world,  but  to  the  slow  transformations  of 
public  life.  In  revolutionary  times,  the  idea  precedes 
the  act,  although  the  act  often  outstrips  the  idea ;  but 

1  L6vy-Bruhl,  L'Allemagne  depuis  Leibnitz. 


368  THE  EVOLUTION  OF  FRANCE. 

in  evolutionary  times,  it  comes  to  pass  that  the  theory 
is  not  enounced,  and,  sometimes,  is  not  even  formed, 
until  after  the  practice,  and  in  accordance  with  that. 
Hence  contradictions  —  calculated  to  bewilder  the  his- 
torian—  between  the  social  state  and  the  artistic  or 
literary  productions  of  a  nation.  These  contradictions 
are  still  further  augmented  in  the  case  of  the  French 
nation.  More  than  any  other  she  has  been  subjected, 
in  the  course  of  the  present  century,  to  incessant  agita- 
tions, to  abrupt  changes.  Her  accession  to  modern 
civilization  has  been  painful  and  troubled ;  her  quest 
for  equilibrium  has  been  injured  by  the  very  efforts 
made  to  obtain  it ;  her  march  towards  science  has  been 
hampered,  her  conception  of  the  moral  law  warped  by 
men  and  circumstances.  It  has  happened  that  she  has 
lost  sight  of  the  object  to  be  attained,  and  has  no  longer 
known  whether  an  object  any  longer  existed  anywhere. 
Logically,  notliing  should  have  remained  standing,  after 
so  many  shocks,  of  that  which  forms  the  true  power  of 
a  collective  body,  to  wit,  agreement  as  to  certain  gen- 
eral principles  of  conscience  and  judgment. 

The  foreigner  who  studies  contemporary  France  is 
moved  to  believe  that  such  an  agreement  no  longer  ex- 
ists. His  reason  suggests  it  to  him ;  the  documents 
which  he  consults  confirm  him  in  the  belief.  History, 
literature,  and  statistics  unite,  in  his  eyes,  to  condemn 
the  French  citizen ;  he  decides  that  he  is  ungovernable 
and  dissolute,  powerless  to  make  the  race  progress,  and 
to  organize  anything  definite.  National  prosperity,  he 
says  to  himself,  never  has  sprung  from  political  insta- 
bility ;  never  has  virtue  lived  in  thorough  harmony 
with  immorality.  But  immorality  and  instability  are 
a  double  cancer  with  which  France  is  attacked.  There- 
fore, her  destiny  is  irretrievably  ruined.     Such  is  the 


IDEAS  AND  HABITS.  369 

conclusion  of  many  works  published  beyond  our  fron- 
tiers which  have  aroused  our  ire,  and  have  made  us  be- 
lieve in  the  existence  of  a  deliberate  plan  to  decry  us, 
when  their  authors  were  simply  guilty  of  too  condensed 
an  analysis  and  too  rigorous  deductions.  How  often 
have  we  not  challenged,  as  inspired  by  hatred,  the  tes- 
timony of  writers  who  have  endeavored  to  judge  us 
according  to  the  documents  furnished  by  ourselves, 
and  classified  according  to  scientific  methods  !  Their 
reasoning  was  not  false,  neither  were  our  recrimina- 
tions unjust.  We  are  conscious  of  being  better  than 
the  portraits  which  are  drawn  of  us,  but  these  portraits 
are  painted  with  the  colors  fabricated  by  our  own  acts ; 
in  order,  therefore,  to  arrive  at  a  sound  judgment  con- 
cerning us,  it  must  be  admitted  that  the  manner  of  life 
and  the  habits  of  mind  of  the  French  people  have  long 
been  at  variance,  and  that  there  are  two  co-existent 
Frances,  one  of  which  amuses  itself  over  what  the  other 
writes,  without  putting  it  into  practice.  In  spite  of 
the  fact  that  such  a  duality  of  national  existence  is  not 
rare  in  our  annals,^  it  is  difficult  for  the  mind  to  accept 
it.  As  for  our  public  habits,  we  have  belied  the  pre- 
dictions of  our  detractors.  The  preceding  pages  con- 
tain the  narrative  of  events  which  are  well  calculated 
to  disconcert  them ;  the  most  illustrious  among  them. 
Prince  Bismarck,  was  the  first  to  make  the  mistake,  and 
it  is  sufficient  to  glance  through  the  organs  of  public 
opinion  abroad  to  gather  expressions  of  opinion  whose 
inexactness  has  speedily  been  emphasized  by  facts.     But 

1  At  the  moment  of  the  great  Revolution,  remarks  M.  Goumy  (La 
France  <lu  Centenaire,  1889) ,  France  presented  an  extraordinary  spectacle : 
"Her  arms  had  rendered  her  so  strong  that  she  imposed  peace  on  two  of 
the  great  powers  allied  against  her,  and  those  who  governed  her  had  made 
her  so  wretched  that  she  had  neither  administration,  nor  finances,  nor 
justice,  nor  police." 
2b 


370  THE  EVOLUTION  OF  FRANCE. 

when  private  habits  are  in  question,  it  is  more  difficult 
to  present  the  proofs.  It  can  be  attempted  only  in  an 
indirect  manner,  by  casting  a  rapid  glance  at  the  evo- 
lution undergone  in  the  last  twenty-five  years  by  those 
great  propagators  of  error  or  of  truth,  books  and  news- 
papers, and  by  that  fundamental  institution  of  the 
modern  nation,  the  family. 

It  is  superfluous  to  mention  the  beauty  and  extent  of 
France's  literary  patrimony  ;  but  it  is  not  profitless  to 
call  attention  to  the  fact  that  the  recent  centuries  have 
taught  us  to  talk  and  to  write,  rather  than  to  think. 
Precise  traditions  remain  to  us  on  this  point.  The 
worship  of  form  has  nothing  but  faithful  disciples 
among  us.  The  subjects  have  varied,  from  one  epoch 
to  another ;  the  anxiety  to  set  forth  things  in  a  deli- 
cate, elegant,  eloquent  manner  has  remained  almost 
invariable.  Therein  lies  the  common  relationship  be- 
tween the  very  different  works  produced  by  French 
genius,  which  extreme  nobility  and  extreme  meanness 
have  inspired,  turn  and  turn  about.  The  duel  of  great 
sentiments  and  petty  passions  is  characteristic  of  French 
literature  ;  sixty  years  ago,  it  broke  out  again  with 
feverish  intensity.  Under  the  monarchy  of  July,  the 
battle  was  sharp.  The  condition  of  science  remained 
stationary  ;  fruitful  ideas  and  generous  impulses  were 
repressed ;  great  minds  revolted ;  but  the  durable  works 
which  came  from  their  pens  were  not  understood  by  a 
public  which  was  essentially  materialistic  in  its  tenden- 
cies and  narrow  in  its  aspirations.  Imaginative  litera- 
ture triumphed.  Commonplace  souls  took  pleasure, 
by  contrast,  in  the  recital  of  adventures  which  they 
would  not  have  had  the  audacity  to  face,  and  no  one 
more  enjoys  books  which  are  not  virtuous  than  a  citi- 
zen who  is  virtuous  in  spite  of  himself.     The  gate  of 


IDEAS  AND  HABITS.  371 

immorality  was  thrown  open  by  a  poet  of  rare  charm, 
whose  influence  has  since  been  immense  and  general. 
Everybody  who  can  read  has  been  affected  thereby. 
Alfred  de  Musset's  work  has  served  as  the  book  of 
devotions  —  one  might  almost  say  the  breviary  —  of  a 
whole  generation.  It  contains  poison  for  all  ages  and 
all  natures,  —  for  the  simple  and  the  refined,  for  youth 
and  for  mature  age. 

Under  the  Second  Empire,  the  struggle  ceased.  Pub- 
lic opinion  no  longer  cared  anything  for  higher  educa- 
tion: "It  contented  itself  with  the  licentiates  of  law 
and  the  doctors  of  medicine  which  it  furnished  .  .  . ; 
practical  needs  were  satisfied."  ^  In  the  damp  obscurity 
of  their  underground  laboratories,  a  few  learned  men 
were  preparing  the  future :  no  one  even  ridiculed 
them.  Writers  of  genius  sought  a  publisher ;  only  the 
writers  of  romance  found  one.  The  sickly  analysis  of 
physical  love  infested  the  romance  ;  debauch  and  adul- 
tery served  as  the  theme  of  all  tales.  Poisonous  sub- 
stances cannot  be  absorbed  with  impunity.  The  higher 
classes  became  rapidly  corrupt.  Good  and  evil  were 
constrained  to  live  in  contemptible  promiscuity.  Ideas 
became  gangrened.  The  strangest  theories  were  ad- 
mitted, especially  in  educational  matters.  Certain 
errors  of  conduct  were  considered  as  a  salutary  experi- 
ence for  young  men,  and  the  indulgence  which  was 
publicly  proclaimed  with  regard  to  those  who  thus 
learned  "  to  know  life  "  was  mingled  with  some  disdain 
for  labor  and  virtue.  The  theatre  served  to  set  forth 
subversive  theories  on  marriage  and  the  family.  Art 
aspired  to  a  facile  ideal  of  voluptuous  levity.  French 
thought  was  lulled  to  sleep  as  in  a  vague  revery  pro- 
duced by  opium.     A  curious  fact  !     The  terrible  year 

1  L.  Liard,  Universites  et  Factilt€s. 


372  THE  EVOLUTION  OF  FRANCE. 

brought  neither  remedy  nor  change.  The  war  ended, 
the  same  taste,  the  same  sort  of  reading,  the  same 
amusements,  reappeared.  Only  the  press,  now  become 
free,  furnished  one  outlet  the  more  for  that  unhealthy 
prose  which  abroad  was  currently  denominated  "French 
prose,"  and  the  influence  of  democracy  was  exercised 
in  a  stronger  and  more  direct  manner. 

Democracy  spurs  on  to  overproduction,  and  overpro- 
duction brings  in  its  train  a  whole  troop  of  ill-omened  con- 
sequences ;  social  consequences  in  the  first  place.  How 
many  dreams  unrealized,  how  many  disappointed  ambi- 
tions, which  turn  into  bitterness,  so  far  as  society  is  con- 
cerned !  Many  are  the  writers  who  are  misunderstood  and 
who  deserve  to  be,  but,  convinced  of  their  own  genius,  go  to 
swell  the  ranks  of  the  discontented,  and  form  the  staff  of 
revolution.  The  press  brings  out  many  failures ;  books 
bring  out  still  more.  On  the  other  hand,  those  who  suc- 
ceed have  neither  security  nor  repose.  They  must  live  in 
a  state  of  constant  activity  in  order  to  preserve  from  the 
caprices  of  fortune  their  painfully  acquired  popularity. 
They  are  constrained  never  to  pause  on  the  upward  path, 
if  not  of  fortune,  at  least  of  advertisement.  This  adver- 
tising they  obtain  by  many  means.  The  black  pessimism 
of  their  conclusions  draws  attention  to  them,  as  well  as 
their  choice  of  eccentric  or  repugnant  subjects.  "  There 
is  a  very  strange  school  nowadays  in  the  theatre,  in 
poetry,  in  romance,"  writes  M.  Legouve.^  "The  object 
of  the  leaders  of  this  school  is  the  study  of  the  human 
soul,  but  in  this  study,  they  devote  their  attention  only 
to  what  is  morbid.  For  them,  moral  health,  simple  and 
natural  sentiments,  do  not  count."  As  soon  as  their 
notoriety  permits  them,  they  mount  the  stage  them- 
selves, and  substitute  themselves  for  their  work.    StroU- 

1  E.  Legouve,  Jean-Jacques  Rousseau.     (Le  Temps,  July  9, 1895.) 


IDEAS  AND  HABITS.  373 

ing-player  behavior  in  literary  life  is  without  bounds  ; 
a  romancer  of  renown  who  changes  his  residence  as- 
sumes the  airs  of  the  chief  of  a  mission  ;  he  communi- 
cates his  itinerary  to  the  ]3ublic  in  advance,  in  order  to 
give  time  to  the  foreigners  whom  he  is  going  to  visit  to 
prepare  glorious  receptions  for  him  ;  the  frontier  once 
passed,  he  keeps  up  telegraphic  communication  with  the 
newspapers  of  his  own  country,  and  addresses  to  them, 
after  each  banquet,  bulletins  of  victory  which  remind 
one  of  those  from  the  Grand  Army.  On  the  lower 
rungs  of  the  ladder  of  celebrity,  men  have  recourse  to 
reviews  of  mutual  admiration,  the  joint-authors  of  which 
burn  incense  to  each  other  in  turn,  in  the  most  serious 
manner  in  the  world.  They  call  each  other,  among 
themselves,  "  powerful  men,"  and  when  one  of  them  in 
a  pamphlet  pours  out  against  society  the  gall  with 
which  his  soul  is  filled,  it  is  said  of  him  that  he  is  "  the 
fatal  adversary  of  the  institutions  of  the  century." 
These  perpetual  exaggerations,  which  no  one  escapes,^ 
impoverish  the  language.  There  are  epochs  when 
everything  is  clearly  stated,  and  words  serve  only  to 
express  ideas.  There  are  other  epochs  when  words  take 
the  place  of  ideas,  when  an  effort  is  made  to  arrange 
them  in  an  ingenious,  a  piquant,  a  harmonious  manner. 
And,  in  conclusion,  there  are  epochs  when  ideas  seem 
complicated  to  such  a  degree  that  there  are  not  enough 
words  in  existence  to  translate  them.  New  ones  are 
invented  ;  they  are  borrowed  from  foreign  languages. 
The  writer  piles  them  up  in  painful  gradations.      It 

1  A  poet,  member  of  the  Academic  Fran^aise,  exclaims,  in  response  to 
the  question  put  to  him  by  a  journalist:  "  I,  a  deputy,  would  I  go  and 
drown  myself  in  the  torrents  of  public  saliva!  confound  myself  in  the 
rabble  of  chatterers  and  impostors!"  AVhen  an  Academician  permits 
himself  to  use  such  expressions,  one  cannot  feel  surprised  that  common 
mortals  abuse  them. 


374  THE  EVOLUTION   OF  FRANCE. 

seems  to  require  an  excessive  effort  in  the  direction  of 
simplification,  to  enable  him  to  put  his  idea  within  the 
reach  of  the  reader.  If  one  takes  the  trouble  to  force  his 
way  through  this  phantasmagoria,  the  central  thought 
appears  quite  simple,  quite  easy  to  say,  reduced  to  that 
which,  in  former  days,  would  have  been  very  briefly 
expressed.  To  read  some  of  our  modern  authors,  you 
would  think  you  were  being  carried  back  to  the  palmy 
days  of  scholasticism,  so  great  is  the  pleasure  they  take 
in  mixing  everything  up.^ 

It  is  impossible  to  say  how  much  time  would  be  re- 
quired before  the  excess  of  such  evils  would  bring  about 
a  reaction.  Literary  currents  are  formed  with  extreme 
slowness.  Moreover,  the  French  tire  less  quickly  than 
others  of  what  amuses  them.  Hence  the  revival  which, 
for  several  years  past,  has  manifested  itself  in  the  in- 
spiration and  the  aims  of  a  great  many  of  their  writers 
is  not  a  sign  of  reaction.  It  is  the  direct  result  of  the 
diffusion  of  the  scientific  method.  It  is  customary  to 
assert  that  science  has  made  marvellous  progress  during 
the  last  century.  The  fact  is  undeniable,  but  it  is  not 
fact  but  method  which  has  entirely  modified  the  condi- 
tions under  which  the  faculties  of  the  human  mind  are 
exercised,  and  has  opened  to  it  indefinite  perspectives  ; 
it  is  not  results,  it  is  the  process.  Men  have  learned 
that  if  imagination  sometimes  creates  beauty,  criticism 
alone  reduces  it  to  truth.  Analysis  and  synthesis  have 
been  applied  to  all  classes  of  phenomena,  and,  while  dis- 
coveries in  the  natural  order  of  things  were  being  multi- 
plied, in  the  social  order,  valuable  sources  of  information, 

1  Decadence  and  symbolism  are  only  forms  of  this  disease  of  language, 
produced  by  the  exaggeration  of  terms  and  the  necessity  for  constantly 
reinforcing  them.  Thus  it  comes  to  pass  that  of  a  vivid  work  it  is  said 
that  it  is  "  bleeding  with  life,"  and  that  a  captivating  story  becomes  "as 
interesting  as  a  flow  of  lava." 


IDEAS  AND  HABITS.  375 

hitherto  unproductive,  have  been  utilized,  so  that  the 
past  has  been  elucidated  as  well  as  the  present.  Com- 
pare Bossuet's  Discourse  on  Natural  History.,  and  Fustel 
de  Coulanges'  The  Ancient  City,  These  books  appear 
to  have  been  written  by  beings  of  a  different  essence, 
whose  brains  were  not  even  of  the  same  make.  Exami- 
nation, discussion,  comparison  of  texts,  the  study  of 
the  exact  value  of  words,  precision  of  reasoning,  rigid- 
ity of  deductions,  are  the  roads  by  which,  henceforth, 
one  marches  on  to  certainty. 

This  revolution  in  the  workings  of  thought  is,  as- 
suredly, the  characteristic  of  the  nineteenth  century. 
It  has  taken  place,  in  great  part,  outside  of  France,  and 
almost  without  France's  knowledge.  Lulled  by  decep- 
tive mirages,  and  satisfied  with  the  easy  productions  of 
their  luxuriant  imagination,  the  French  ignored,  until 
the  approach  of  1870,  the  rising  tide  of  science  beyond 
their  frontiers.  The  very  word  was  strange  to  them; 
they  employed  it  as  the  synonym  of  exact  sciences. 
Very  fortunately,  a  handful  of  picked  men,  attracted 
precisely  by  that  which  repelled  the  crowd,  namely,  the 
sternness  of  the  labor  and  the  austerity  of  the  subject, 
had  gone  in  search  of  the  new  Grail,  and  had  brought 
it  back  to  their  native  land.  It  is  to  them  that  France 
is  indebted  for  being  able  rapidly  to  regain  lost  ground 
and  time,  and  to  escape  an  intellectual  Sedan. 

At  the  head  of  these  men,  the  first  by  virtue  of  genius 
and  of  the  influence  which  he  exercised,  is  Hippolyte 
Taine.  That  influence  is  very  different  from  what  it 
was,  at  first,  believed  to  be  ;  it  may  be  said  of  Taine 
that  what  he  produced  is  nothing  in  comparison  with 
what  he  has  aroused.  By  introducing,  for  the  first 
time,  demonstrations  and  precise  formulas  into  an 
order  of  facts  which  did  not  seem  to  admit  of  them 


376  THE  EVOLUTION  OF  FRANCE. 

Taine  imparted  to  the  positive  tendencies  of  his  time 
"  a  sort  of  algebraic  notation  which  has  doubled  their 
power."  ^  He  has  presented  man  as  the  product  of  the 
race,  the  surroundings,  and  the  moment,  and  his  favor- 
ite argument  was  :  "  That  there  is  a  fundamental  force, 
a  ruling  faculty,  whose  personality,  once  grasped  and 
well  located,  develops  fully  like  a  flower,  and  the  work 
of  art  which  follows  is  explicable  as  a  natural  fruit.  "^ 
The  positivists  and  the  pessimists  felt  grateful  to  him 
for  his  demonstrations,  believing  them  to  be  their  own. 
But  he  hesitated  at  no  sacrifice  of  ideas  to  attain  to  the 
truth,  and  he  proved,  eventually,  that  he  understood 
how  to  pursue  it  imder  any  disguise,  and  in  any  place, 
so  that  the  most  diverse  schools  have  been  able  to  lay 
claim  to  being  connected  with  him,  and  his  works  fur- 
nish reinforcements  to  all  armies.  This  is  a  very  rare 
occurrence,  and  one  which  could  not  fail  to  produce 
an  impression  by  its  novelty.  Taine  began  to  write  in 
the  days  of  decadence,  when  men  doubted  everything, 
except  the  legitimateness  of  doubt,  so  that  doubt  had 
gradually  come  to  be  a  negative  religion,  and  even  in 
order  to  be  reckoned  among  the  deniers  one  had  to 
recite  a  credo.  But  negation  could  not  satisfy  men  for 
long  ;  they  were  tired  of  denying  ;  they  could  not 
believe,  but  they  longed  to  know.  Taine  proved  that 
it  was  possible  to  learn  apart  from  any  preconceived 
idea,  from  any  principle  laid  down  a  priori;  that  to  this 
end  it  sufficed  to  go  straight  ahead,  paying  attention 
to  the  smallest  pebble  in  the  road,  and  avoiding  no 
obstacle,  permitting  no  impediment.  Such  a  method, 
even  if  it  produced  no  direct  results,  contained  the 
germ  of  unlimited  improvement  for  him  who  should 
put  it  in  practice. 

1  A.  Sabatier,  Taine.    {Le  Temps  newspaper,  March  7,  1893.)     2  ibid. 


ERNEST  RENAN,  OF  THE  FRENCH  ACADEMY. 


[TJNIVBR! 


IDEAS  AND  HABITS.  377 

But  these  things  were  not  known  outside  of  a  small 
circle  of  open  and  audacious  minds.  Science  could  not 
win  young  Frenchmen  without  being  dressed  up  and 
rendered  attractive.  This  was  the  work  of  Ernest 
Renan.  In  the  style  of  Taine,  "  the  epithet  was  always 
an  argument  :  everything  was  directed  towards  in- 
structing and  convincing;  nothing  was  sacrificed  to  the 
desire  to  please  or  to  charm."  ^  In  that  of  Renan,  the 
poet  appeared  behind  the  learned  man.  "His  erudi- 
tion furnishes  him  with  new  and  profound  views  ;  it 
opens  to  him,  on  all  sides,  those  distant  perspectives 
which  seem  to  extend  into  infinity  the  subjects  of  which 
he  treats." 2  At  the  beginning  of  his  career  he  estab- 
lished his  reputation  as  a  learned  man  by  important 
works  ;  in  that  way  he  acquired  the  right  to  speak  the 
aerial  language  of  a  poet.  No  one  understands  so  well 
as  he  how  to  mingle  the  fancies  of  ingenious  supposi- 
tions with  the  exact  data  of  learning.  The  wealth  of 
his  imagination  brightens  up  the  links  of  his  real  logic, 
as  dreaming  divides  life.  He  will  be  reproached,  it  is 
true,  for  the  great  liberty  which  he  takes  with  some 
documents  ;  he  breaks  them,  crumbles  them  up,  "  to 
adjust  them  to  his  plan  and  to  compose  from  them,  as 
in  a  stained-glass  window,"  ^  the  figure  which  he  has 
conceived.  It  will  be  asked  whether  that  which  Ger- 
man criticism  has  left  standing  in  the  line  of  monu- 
ments of  information  concerning  the  history  of  Israel 
does  not  constitute  a  "  canvas  with  meshes  too  large 
to  support  embroidery,  and  which  can  be  filled  in  only 
by   visions."*      Abroad,   people   are  even  thoroughly 

1  A.  Sabatier,  Taine.    {Le  Temps  newspaper,  March  7, 1893.) 

-  Speech  of  M.  Boissier  at  the  Academie  Fran9aise  (session  of  January 

2G,  1894). 

3  Challemel-Lacour,  Speech  on  his  reception  into  the  Academie  Fran- 

9aise  (session  of  January  20,  1894).  *  Ibid. 


378  THE  EVOLUTION   OF  FRANCE. 

horrified  at  him  ;  but  in  France,  confidence  is  not 
shaken,  and  the  enchantment  is  complete.  Taine  had 
introduced  science,  and  now,  behold,  Renan  has  bap- 
tized it.  Henceforth,  it  is  French.  Every  one  desires 
to  betake  himself  to  her  as  soon  as  his  code  of  worship 
can  accommodate  itself  to  delicacy  of  form,  subtilty 
of  sentiment,  and  admits  of  external  grace  and  har- 
mony. And  so  powerful  is  the  current  created  by 
the  two  influences  of  Taine  and  Renan,  that  it  brings 
about  a  deviation  of  all  literature  of  a  higher  order. 
Those  who  resist  are  dragged  along  with  the  rest. 
The  result-  is  that  one  comes  to  recognize  the  fact 
that  everything  can  be  acquired;  that  talent,  and  even 
genius,  needs  cultivation.  Intellectualism,  "that  per- 
version of  the  mind  which  reduces  us  to  seeking  in  life 
only  the  spectacle  of  life,"  ^  receives  a  serious  blow. 
The  law  of  labor  ceases  to  admit  of  exceptions :  ro- 
mancers, like  philosophers,  are  subject  to  it.  Psychol- 
ogy vanquishes  them.  No  doubt,  they  write  pages  on 
pages  to  analyze  the  frivolities  of  vulgar  love  ;  their 
favorite  heroes  are  useless,  weak  men,  who  measure 
themselves,  sound  themselves,  contemplate  themselves, 
who  lose  themselves  in  the  labyrinth  of  their  meagre 
thoughts  and  reason  about  the  petty  shivers  which 
thrill  over  their  flesh.  In  the  cleverest  of  these 
writers,  he  who  wields  language  with  the  most  talent, 
Maupassant,  one  would  seek  in  vain  for  a  general  type 
capable  of  lasting  after  the  fashion  of  his  garments 
had  passed  away.  Nevertheless,  there  is  effort,  there 
is  research  and  labor.     Moreover,  the  good  seed  devel- 

1  Henry  B^renger,  L' Effort.  "  The  intellectual  man  of  our  genera- 
tion," says  Henry  Berenger,  "  is  a  more  complex  and  elaborate  being.  He 
has  exhausted  all  alternatives  of  modern  thought,  and  he  is  satisfied  with 
none  of  them.  A  lucid  dryness  has  slowly  crystallized  his  soul,  but  he 
suffers  from  it,  he  sometimes  dies  from  it,  and  therein  lies  his  nobility." 


IDEAS  AND  HABITS.  379 

ops.  Daudet  had  already  stigmatized  certain  vices, 
without  furnishing  a  conclusion  to  his  satires.  Bour- 
get  clearly  decides  in  favor  of  the  restoration  of  the 
moral  law,^  and  Zola  points  out  the  necessity  of  a 
change  in  social  relations.  On  the  borderland  of  im- 
aginative literature,  almost  as  much  read,  and  quite  as 
much  appreciated,  appear  those  who,  in  company  with 
M.  Eugene  de  Vogiie  and  in  his  train,  "  try  to  heal 
moral  infirmity  instead  of  winning  a  noisy  victory  over 
it,'*  2  and,  in  conclusion,  there  are  the  apostles  of  an 
idea,  of  a  doctrine,  —  Lavisse,  Desjardins,  Wagner, — 
who  catch  a  glimpse  of  some  good,  and  wish  to  convert 
it  into  reality.  In  proportion  as  inspiration  rises, 
language  grows  pure.  There,  again,  the  action  of 
Renan  exerts  a  powerful  influence.  "  A  great  writer 
leaves  behind  him  something  more  durable  even  than 
his  writings,"  M.  Gaston  Boissier  has  said,  speaking  of 
Renan  ;  "  it  is  the  language  which  he  has  used,  which 
he  has  rendered  flexible  and  moulded  to  his  uses,  and 
which,  even  when  wielded  by  other  hands,  always  pre- 
serves something  of  the  turn  which  he  has  imparted 
to  it."  These  qualities  of  language,  which  appeal  so 
strongly  to  the  French,  contribute  one  force  the  more 
to  neo-idealism,  stopping  short  on  the  lips  of  many  a 
reader  Voltaire's  old  jest,  which  is  always  ready  to 
spring  from  them. 

But,  in  spite  of  everything,  unhealthy  literature  does 
not  die.  It  is  not  crushed.  It  draws  its  strength  from 
habit,  that  second  nature.  Instead  of  descending  from 
on  high,  it  now  ascends  from  below,  where  the  company 
of  its  disciples  has  increased  enormously.  The  porno- 
graphic now  maintains  its  rights  everywhere.     In  the 

1  See,  especially,  Terre  Promise. 

*  Gaston  Deschamps,  Chronicle  of  Le  Temps  newspaper. 


380  THE  EVOLUTION  OF  FRANCE. 

newspapers,  politics  and  commerce  are  restricted,  in 
order  to  make  room  for  it,  and  the  most  celebrated 
romance-writers  feel  themselves  obliged  to  offer  sacri- 
fices to  it,  that  they  may  have  the  right,  later  on,  to 
say  honest  and  serious  things.  Note  that  it  no  longer 
has  anything  of  that  Gallic  wit  dear  to  our  ancestors 
and  which  was  the  expression  of  their  joy  in  living, 
and  of  the  frankness  of  their  sensations.  It  is  neither 
humorous  nor  frank !  In  former  days,  moreover,  there 
were  many  sources  of  mirth.  Nowadays  there  is  noth- 
ing but  this.  Hence,  there  is  something  nervous, 
studied,  about  laughter;  it  wearies  and  often  nau- 
seates. Obscenit)'-  overflows  in  image  and  in  song. 
The  law  has  been  obliged^  to  interfere,  but  private 
initiative  does  not  back  it  up.  "  The  league  against 
license  in  the  streets  "  is  approved ;  but  no  one  joins  it, 
for  fear  of  being  ridiculed.  Assemblages  of  boys  and 
of  young  men  are,  necessarily,  the  most  affected.  In 
the  colleges,  the  evil  which  M.  Sainte-Claire  Deville 
exposed  twenty  years  ago  has  not  cured  itself,  and  no 
remedy  has  been  applied.  Moreover,  how  is  it  to  be 
remedied?  The  outside  air  penetrates  within  the  col- 
lege, and  that  air  is  vitiated.  The  young  man  is  aware 
of  his  elder's  mode  of  life  ;  he  enjoys  it  in  advance.  It 
is  thrust  upon  him  by  the  double  attraction  of  that 
which  is  forbidden,  and  that  which  is  within  reach. 
Having  become  free,  he  gets  intoxicated  with  the  rest, 
and  then  bears  a  stain  upon  his  brow  and  something 
like  a  burden  on  his  life.     Long  after  he  has  renounced 

1  In  1882,  in  view  of  the  great  abundance  of  obscene  publications  and 
pornographic  books,  the  Chamber  passed  a  law  which  invalidated  the  gen- 
eral provisions  of  the  law  concei'ning  the  press,  in  order  to  admit  of  a 
prompter  and  more  eflScacious  prosecution  of  obscene  publications.  (See 
an  article  by  M.  J.  Darmesteter,  in  the  Revue  Bleue,  March  2,  1889,  on  the 
vile  literature  which  disgraces  France.) 


IDEAS  AND  HABITS.  381 

evil  pleasures,  the  evil  thought  abides  with  him.  He 
has  returned  to  the  straight  way,  but  he  regrets  the 
tortuous  path.  Duty  has  claimed  him  again,  but  the 
memory  of  his  dissoluteness  charms  him. 

For  it  is  a  fact ;  he  does  renounce  evil  pleasures  ;  he 
does  return  to  the  straight  way  ;  duty  does  claim  him 
again.  His  life  is  lightened  and  regulated.  Who  ef- 
fects this  miracle  ?  France.  France  cures  him  by  the 
influence  of  her  long  centuries  of  virtue  and  honesty, 
to  whose  unconscious  impulsion  he  submits ;  by  the 
force  of  familiar  bonds,  whose  meshes  gently  close  in 
around  him ;  by  the  suggestion  of  the  noble  instincts 
and  the  great  traditions  whose  awakening  takes  place 
within  him.  "  Silent  martyrs,  mute  sacrifices  to  justice 
and  to  honor,  battles  which  have  no  witnesses,  victories 
which  have  no  triumphs,"  writes  M.  Jean  Honcey,^ 
"  we  pass  you  by  without  divining  your  existence,  and 
yet  it  is  through  you  that  we  live."  It  is  certainly 
thus  that  the  Frenchman  lives  upon  France.  The  na- 
tion has  been  so  strongly  cemented  that  that  which 
would  disintegrate  any  other  nation  scarcely  makes  any 
impression  upon  her.  The  year  1870  gave  a  collective 
proof  of  this,  so  to  speak;  the  power  of  resistance  of  the 
French  family  furnishes  an  individual  and  daily  proof 
of  it.  If  the  foreigner,  of  whom  we  spoke  a  while 
ago,  not  content  with  searching  and  annotating  written 
documents,  wishes  to  verify  their  exactness  by  living 
documents,  he  will  pause  in  surprise  before  this  baffling 
problem,  and  if  he  is  conscientious,  being  unable  to 
solve  it,  he  will  hold  his  peace.  The  fact  is,  moreover, 
worthy  of  remark  ;  those  who  know  France  superficially 
or  study  it  from  a  distance,  always  find  a  thousand 
things  to  say  about  her ;  they  expose  her  faults,  re- 

1  Jean  Honcey,  Souffles  Nouveauz. 


382  THE  EVOLUTION  OF  FRANCE. 

form  her  institutions,  discover  the  how  and  the  why 
of  her  errors.  But  those  who  have  lived  there  a  long 
time,  and  have  penetrated  into  the  details  of  her  exist- 
ence, take  care  not  to  pronounce  a  general  judgment. 
They  are  alarmed  by  the  contradictory  elements  which 
must  be  reconciled  in  order  to  do  justice  to  that  peo- 
ple, at  once  so  mobile  and  so  stable,  so  frivolous  and  so 
profound,  so  sceptical  and  so  imbued  with  faith.  Above 
all,  they  cannot  distinguish  how  the  division  between 
good  and  evil  is  effected  in  them ;  the  line  of  separa- 
tion remains  invisible.  Almost  everywhere,  they  ob- 
serve corruption  of  manners,  at  the  same  time  that  they 
admit  the  force  and  union  of  the  family. 

This  has  not  changed ;  for  centuries  its  foundations 
have  been  the  same ;  on  repeated  occasions,  one  might 
have  thought  that  they  were  shaken  ;  local  and  transi- 
tory causes  have  produced  that  illusion ;  but  neither 
political  revolutions,  nor  economical  disturbances,  nor 
even  the  vices  whose  ravages  the  ruling  class  has  often 
undergone,  have  appreciably  distorted  the  French  family. 
It  still  rests,  to-day,  on  respect  for  the  wife,  on  the  con- 
fiding tenderness  of  the  children,  and  the  veneration  of 
the  dead,  and  on  love  of  country.  These  are  qualities 
of  which  no  country  can  claim  the  monopoly.  That 
they  exist  elsewhere  is  certain  ;  perhaps,  even,  if  they 
are  viewed  separately,  it  will  be  found  that  others  pos- 
sess them  in  a  superior  degree.  Our  detractors  say  — 
and  there  is  some  truth  in  their  criticism  —  that  the 
manner  in  which  Frenchmen  treat  women  is  more  com- 
patible with  gallantry  than  with  true  respect ;  the  re- 
lations between  parents  and  children  appear  to  them  to 
be  stamped  with  roguish  tenderness ;  they  regard  the 
religion  of  mourning  and  of  the  cemetery  as  both  vague 
and  formal,  and  the  attachment  to  the  domestic  hearth, 


IDEAS  AND  HABITS.  383 

in  its  rather  petty  narrowness,  in  their  eyes,  imposes 
restraints  upon  great  ambitions  and  bold,  enterprises. 

Very  different,  assuredly,  is  the  family  type  analyzed 
by  Le  Play,  which  rests  squarely  on  the  strict  observance 
of  what  he  has  called  the  eternal  decalogue.  Therein 
the  action  of  the  father  preponderates,  and  his  authority 
is  absolute.  The  children  are  allured  to  the  practice 
of  manly  virtues  ;  death  is  regarded  as  a  normal  acci- 
dent, and  the  flitting  of  the  young  birds  from  the  nest 
as  the  inevitable  law.  With  us,  a  greater  space  is 
allotted  to  passion,  to  sentiment,  to  dreams  ;  the  con- 
ception of  life  is  different;  life  itself  is  less  austere 
and  more  attractive.  This  is  because  the  influence  of 
woman  is  powerfully  exerted.  Eloquent  pages  have 
been  written  about  the  Frenchwoman,  which  it  is  im- 
possible to  sum  up  otherwise  than  by  recognizmg  a 
very  simple  and  very  large  fact ;  While  in  other  coun- 
tries the  "  woman "  movement  is  constantly  becoming 
more  accentuated,  and  is  already  producing  some  dis- 
array on  the  border  of  the  family,  in  France,  it  in- 
cessantly miscarries ;  its  declamatory  demonstrations 
provoke  nothing  but  hilarity.  The  repugnance  to 
favor  every  attempt  to  emancipate  the  weaker  sex  is 
even  shown  with  regard  to  the  modifications  which  it 
would  be  useful  to  introduce  into  the  legislative  texts, 
and  whose  consequences  would  alarm  no  one. 

The  Frenchwoman  will  take  good  care  not  to  re- 
nounce, for  the  sake  of  acquiring  an  illusive  equality, 
the  domain  of  which  she  herself  has  fixed  the  limits, 
the  part  which  she  has  chosen  to  play,  the  sovereignty 
of  which  she  has  secured  to  herself  the  usufruct.  She 
has  managed  to  transform  marriage  by  introducing 
into  it  habits  of  fellowship,  a  harmonious  equilibrium, 
an  insight  into  each  other's  soul,  a  fusion  of  sentiments, 


384  THE  EVOLUTION  OF  FRANCE. 

which  do  not  seem  to  have  existed  in  the  world  before 
her  advent.  She  counts  no  sacrifice  too  dear  for  the 
sake  of  attaining  the  goal  which  she  appoints  to  her- 
self, —  the  absolute  and  complete  possession  of  her  hus- 
band ;  and  in  her  desire  to  please  him,  to  be  always  at 
his  side,  she  avoids  not  the  opprobrium  which  may  attack 
him,  although  by  exposing  herself  to  them  she  often 
causes  herself  to  be  falsely  judged.  Her  children  be- 
long to  her,  above  all ;  she  does  not  give  them  to  the 
city,  to  the  race  ;  she  gives  them  to  herself  to  love 
them,  to  pet  them,  to  procure  for  them  that  for  which 
she  herself  thirsts  above  all  others  of  her  kind, — happi- 
ness. She  possesses  neither  the  heedlessness  of  the 
azure-skied  South,  nor  the  resignation  of  the  foggy 
North  ;  she  takes  pains  to  chase  away  the  clouds,  to 
put  aside  the  storm  ;  she  loves  her  sun  all  the  better 
because  it  is,  in  some  small  degree,  her  own  handi- 
work ;  tears  come  only  for  the  purpose  of  communi- 
cating to  her  religious  fervor  a  precise  significance 
which  consists  in  obtaining,  in  the  world  beyond  this, 
recompense  for  lost  happiness. 

Such  is  the  subtle,  complex,  delicate  being  the  analy- 
sis of  whom  should  precede  every  study  consecrated 
to  our  country.  Foreign  sociologists  who  neglect  this 
indispensable  preface  go  astray  in  the  edifice  which 
they  have  forgotten  to  illuminate.  Nevertheless,  they 
lay  their  hand  upon  an  accusing  document,  and  brand- 
ish it  victoriously  ;  the  table  of  statistics  on  population 
stands  for  them  as  the  criterion  of  a  definite  certainty  ; 
between  its  lines  of  figures  they  find  room  for  all  the 
vices  of  which  the  great  social  decadences  have  trans- 
mitted the  memory  ;  they  call  attention  to  the  fact 
that  the  decrease  in  the  excess  of  births  over  deaths  is 
not,  in  France,  an  accidental  phenomenon  which  one 


IDEAS  AND  HABITS.  385 

can  assign  to  secondary  and  transitory  causes,  for  that 
decrease  is  accentuated  in  a  fairly  regular  manner. ^ 
France,  at  the  beginning  of  the  nineteenth  century, 
occupied  the  second  place  among  the  nations  of  Eu- 
rope ;  to-day  she  stands  in  the  fifth  rank.  Austria 
outstripped  her  twenty  years  ago.  Germany,  which, 
in  1870,  had  the  same  number  of  inhabitants,  now 
reckons  up  thirteen  millions  more,  in  spite  of  emigra- 
tion which,  every  year,  has  deprived  her  of  a  large 
contingent ;  and  finally,  England,  whose  area  repre- 
sents only  three-fifths  that  of  France,  and  which  fur- 
nishes colonists  to  an  immense  empire,  surpasses  the 
French  total  by  about  three  hundred  thousand.  How 
is  such  inferiority  to  be  explained  ?  Even  admitting 
that  the  life  of  peoples  exactly  reproduces  the  life  of 
men,  —  youth,  manhood,  old  age  (and  this  is  an  inge- 
nious and  seductive  hypothesis,  at  first  sight,  though 
historical  criticism  demonstrates  its  falsity), — can  it  be 
said  that  France's  old  age  has  begun  ?  A  nation  in  its 
decline  could  not  draw  from  a  catastrophe  such  as  that 
of  1870  such  elements  of  renovation.  It  is  not  on  the 
threshold  of  decrepitude  that  one  undertakes  such  a 
task,  sustains  such  an  effort.  And  yet  the  brutal  fact 
is  there.  It  is  impossible  to  reject  the  evidence :  the 
French  race  appears  to  be  smitten  with  relative 
sterility. 

Although  this  problem,  which  is  the  chief  one  of  our 
future,  has  not  attracted  public  attention  as  much  as 
it  should  have  done,  numerous  physicians  have  been 
consulted,  and  their  diagnoses  do  not  agree.  Some  lay 
the  blame  on  immorality ;  others,  on  alcoholism  ;  others 

1  In  1881,  for  the  last  time,  it  surpassed  100,000.     In  1882  it  fell  to 
97,000,  and  declined,  in  1888,  to  44,772.    Tlien,  for  the  space  of  three  years 
(1890,  1891,  1892),  the  deaths  exceeded  by  38,000,  10,000,  and  20,000. 
Then  the  excess  of  births  reappears,  but  always  to  a  small  extent. 
2c 


386  THE  EVOLUTION   OF  FRANCE. 

still,  on  the  civil  code  and  the  law  of  inheritance.  We 
have  just  seen  how  superficial  immorality  remains  in 
France,  and  how  it  finds  a  true  antidote  in  the  family. 
As  for  alcoholism,  it  does  not  stop  the  progress  of 
population  in  other  countries  where  its  ravages  are 
still  more  cruelly  exercised.  Why  should  it  be  other- 
wise within  our  borders  ?  There  remains  that  "  forced 
partition "  which  the  law  imposes,  in  every  generation, 
upon  private  fortunes.  Those  who  have  not  read  the 
works  of  M.  Le  Play  will  have  difficulty  in  conceiving 
how  a  legal  statute  can  cause  in  the  life  of  a  people 
the  perturbations  which  the  distinguished  writer  has 
pointed  out.  But  reasoning  explains  it,  and  experi- 
ence proves  it. 

Systems  of  inheritance  belong  to  three  principal 
types,  founded  on  the  abstention  of  the  legislator,  or 
on  the  double  character  of  his  intervention.  Under 
the  rule  of  the  system  which  may  be  called  "forced 
preservation,"  the  family  property  (habitation,  rural 
domain,  factory,  customers  in  trade)  passes  entire  to  a 
single  heir,  without  the  proprietor  intervening  in  the 
choice  of  his  successor.  Under  the  most  usual  form, 
this  system  gives  the  property  to  the  eldest  of  the  male 
children.  This  is  the  custom  of  "  primogeniture  "  of 
ancient  France.  It  still  exists  in  Italy,  Hanover, 
Denmark,  Sweden,  and  Norway,  in  certain  districts  of 
southern  Germany,  and  of  German  Switzerland.  Trans- 
mission intact  to  one  of  the  younger  sons  has  prevailed 
among  the  peasants  of  many  Austrian  provinces.  The 
custom  of  absolute  primogeniture,  without  regard  to 
sex,  reigns  in  the  Basque  provinces,  and  was  even  pre- 
served until  recent  years  in  Lavedan  and  Beam.  Cer- 
tain distinctions,  based  on  the  nature  and  the  origin 
of  the  property,  are  sometimes  admitted  ;  thus  forced 


IDEAS  AND  HABITS.  387 

preservation  applies  in  Scotland  only  to  the  real  estate, 
in  German  and  Scandinavian  lands  to  the  goods  re- 
ceived in  heritage.  If  it  has  sometimes  succeeded  in 
securing  social  stability  and  peace,  forced  preservation 
has,  nevertheless,  earned  some  just  criticisms  ;  it  has 
been  reproached  with  enfeebling  the  right  of  property 
by  reducing  the  proprietor  to  the  rank  of  a  life-tenant, 
and  of  investing  with  homes  and  workshops  men  who 
were  unworthy  of  it.  So  far  as  France  is  concerned, 
this  system,  accepted  with  favor  by  public  opinion,  so 
long  as  the  privileged  class  was  raised  above  the  rest 
by  its  virtue  and  its  services,  became  odioiis  when  the 
nobility  of  the  court  was  no  longer  anything^  but  a 
cause  of  scandal.  Moreover,  it  was  unequally  prac- 
tised. In  the  ancient  constitution  of  the  Ile-de-France, 
and  of  the  Orleanais,  forced  preservation  upheld  exclu- 
sively the  families  of  noble  birth ;  on  the  contrary,  in 
the  provinces  of  the  Centre,  the  South,  and  in  Nor- 
mandy, it  applied  to  all.  The  "  forced  partition  "  sys- 
tem, according  to  which  the  property  must  be  divided 
among  many  heirs  appointed  by  law,  has  never  worked 
in  so  exaggerated  a  fashion  anywhere  as  in  France  in 
1793.  It  extended  even  to  the  illegitimate  children, 
and  no  testamentary  disposition  was  permitted.  The 
civil  code  softened  this  harshness  somewhat.  Partition 
exists  in  Russia,  but  only  for  patrimonial  property, 
and  the  male  children  there  are  privileged,  in  addition. 
In  certain  parts  of  Spain,  also,  and  of  Portugal,  it 
exists,  in  many  cantons  of  Switzerland,  in  Turkey,  in 
the  States  of  Barbary;  but  everywhere  softened  in  prin- 
ciple as  well  as  in  application.  And,  finally,  Belgium, 
Holland,  and  the  Rhenish  Provinces,  where  it  was  in- 
troduced with  the  civil  code,  have  retained  it.  Savoy 
replaced  it,  between  1815  and  1860,  by  liberty  of  testa- 


388  THE  EVOLUTION   OF  FRANCE. 

mentary  disposition ;  modern  Italy  has  come  back  to 
it,  in  part,  notably  by  a  recent  law  intended  to  parcel 
out  the  great  estates  of  the  Roman  families.  In  1703 
the  English  Parliament,  aspiring  to  destroy  the  power 
of  the  Irish  Roman  Catholics,  applied  it  to  them  by 
a  special  law.  It  was  also  with  a  destructive  intention 
that  the  men  of  1793  established  it ;  their  feeling  is 
clearly  indicated  by  the  discussion  which  arose  in  this 
connection  in  the  heart  of  the  Convention.  Finally, 
under  the  denomination  of  "  testamentary  liberty,"  are 
grouped  the  systems  of  inheritance  under  which  the 
owner  can  freely  dispose  of  at  least  one-half  of  his 
possessions.  They  are  numerous  ;  many  are  the  com- 
binations by  which  the  legislator  can  extend  or  restrict 
the  right  of  the  testator.  In  default  of  him,  custom 
intervenes.  Thus  in  England,  in  the  case  Avhere  there 
is  no  will,  a  law,  which  sums  up  the  most  widely  ex- 
tended usages,  gives  the  whole  of  the  real  property 
to  the  eldest  of  the  male  children  ;  but  this  law  does 
not  abrogate  local  customs  ;  all  are  recognized,  pro- 
vided that  they  do  not  violate  testamentary  liberty  ; 
it  is  only  a  law  ah  intestate  According  to  the  logic 
of  things,  forced  partition  ought  to  have  a  double 
effect :  it  assures  to  the  child  a  part,  almost  fixed  in 
advance,  of  the  paternal  inheritance  ;  it  thus  gives  him 
sufficient  security  to  reduce  in  him  the  sense  of  effort, 
and  to  relieve  him  of  the  necessity  of  creating  a  posi- 
tion for  himself.  On  the  other  hand,  it  forces  the 
father  to  devise   to   his  children   a   divided   fortune, 

1  One  error,  widely  disseminated,  consists  in  reckoning  England  among 
the  countries  which  hold  to  the  right  of  primogeniture.  England  is,  iu 
reality,  a  land  of  free  testamentary  disposition ;  the  designation  of  the 
heir  is  not  permitted  beyond  the  second  remove,  but  the  habit  in  certain 
families,  of  renewing  it  with  each  generation,  transforms  it  into  perpetual 
designation  of  the  second  heir,  and  produces  the  illusion  of  the  right  of 
primogeniture. 


IDEAS  AND  HABITS.  889. 

lessened  in  consequence,  and  even  compromised,  if  a 
commercial  or  manufacturing  enterprise  is  in  question, 
which  does  not  endure  division  ;  hence  the  father  is 
incited  to  limit  his  own  prosperity.  Hence  the  devel- 
opment of  the  system  of  public  functionaries,  a  repug- 
nance to  colonize,  and,  in  general,  to  be  enterprising, 
and  a  progressive  lowering  of  the  number  of  the  popu- 
lation. Such  is  certainly  the  case  in  France ;  the 
accessory  causes,  if  any  there  be,  cannot  conceal  the 
principal  cause.  It  alone  can  explain  the  abuses  of 
Malthusianism. 

Moreover,  statistics  furnish  other  convincing  data ; 
on  studying  them,  one  perceives  that  the  poorest  depart- 
ments are  those  where  the  births  occur  in  the  largest 
numbers,  and  from  a  work  recently  published  by  a  com- 
petent man,  it  appears  that  in  Paris  the  birth-rate  de- 
creases in  inverse  ratio  to  the  price  of  house-rent. 
The  French  have  given  to  Malthus  his  naturalization 
papers ;  the  practical  application  of  his  precepts  is, 
moreover,  openly  avowed  by  many  of  them.  The  peas- 
ants, the  agricultural  laborers,  whose  habits  of  economy 
are  lauded,  and  with  good  reason,  save  only  with  a 
single  aim  in  view :  to  assure  the  future  of  their 
children,  and  to  assure  it  as  thoroughly  as  possible.  One 
would  say  that  their  private  opinion  must  be  that  the 
following  generation  will  not  be  able  to  add,  by  its 
labor,  to  what  it  has  received  by  inheritance.  They 
wish  to  bequeath  to  their  son  not  the  little  hoard  which 
would  enable  him  to  "  get  his  foot  in  the  stirrup,"  but 
the  big  hoard  which  shall  make  him  the  equal  of  the 
bourgeois  in  whose  employ  the  father  was.  This  is 
because  social  equalization  is  fictitious  ;  the  law  effects 
it,  in  theory ;  in  practice,  in  custom,  it  does  not  exist 
anywhere.    The  various  classes  persist ;  a  man  can  pass 


390  THE  EVOLUTION  OF  FRANCE. 

more  easily  from  one  to  the  other  than  formerly,  that  is 
all.  "  In  the  great  social  staircase,"  says  M.  Taine,^ 
comparing  the  palace  of  ancient  France  to  the  structure 
reared  by  the  Revolution,  "  there  were  many  stories. 
Each  man  could  mount  the  rungs  of  his  own,  but  could 
not  ascend  higher.  .  .  .  Strictly  speaking,  a  man  born 
on  the  upper  levels  of  one  story  sometimes  succeeded 
in  climbing  the  lowest  rungs  of  the  next  story,  but 
there  he  halted.  In  short,  the  people  of  the  lower  story 
regarded  the-  upper  story  as  inaccessible  for  them,  and, 
moreover,  as  uninhabitable."  The  comparison  is  just; 
but  if  the  whole  edifice  is  open  to  all,  each  story  pre- 
serves its  own  very  special  physiognomy,  none  the  less  : 
the  language  which  is  spoken  there,  the  costumes  worn, 
the  manners  affected  differ  from  those  in  use  on  the 
other  stories.  '  It  is  not  talent,  still  less  is  it  virtue, 
which  makes  rank  ;  it  is  not  even  what  one  possesses  ; 
it  is,  above  all,  what  one  spends.  By  renouncing 
certain  habits  of  existence,  a  man  unclasses  himself. 
"Above  a  certain  amount  of  income,  of  gain,  or  of 
salary,  life  becomes  possible.  Below  that  point  it  is 
impossible."  People  have  been  known  to  commit  sui- 
cide because  their  property  had  fallen  below  a  certain 
minimum  ;  *  every  day  one  sees  people  limit  their  fami- 
lies, rather  than  restrict  their  style  of  living.  In  the 
lower  classes,  as  in  the  higher,  the  course  of  reasoning 
is  identical :  some  have  only  one  child,  in  order  that 
they  may  bequeath  to  him  more  ;  others  will  have  none 
at  all,  that  they  may  not  impoverish  themselves.  Such 
is  the  true  and  sole  cause  of  this  stagnation  in  the 
French  race,  so  contrary  to  ancient  traditions,  to  the 
whole  national  past.  Unfortunately,  the  invalid  is 
afraid,  and  the  physicians  falter. 

1  H.  Taine,  Les  Origines  de  la  France  Contemporaine. 

2  C.  Wagner,  La  Vie  Simple. 


H.    TAINE,    OF    THE    FRENCH     ACADEMY. 


[UiriVBRSlTTl 


THE  SOCIAL   QUESTION.  391 


CHAPTER  XIV. 

THE  SOCIAL  QUESTION. 

Errors  of  Valuation. —  An  Unprecedented  Experience.  —  Universal  and 
Simultaneous  Progress.  —  Political  Action :  Congress  and  Elections. — 
Strikes.  —  Anarchists.  —  Intellectual  Mediums.  —  Obstacles :  Petty  Pro- 
prietorship. —  AUemanists,  Broussists,  Guesdists,  Blanquists.  —  Syndi- 
cates. —  A  Second  Night  of  August  4. 

"  Lycurgus'  second  and  boldest  institution  was  the 
partition  of  landed  property  ;  for  the  inequality  between 
the  inhabitants  was  so  terrible,  that  it  even  constituted 
a  danger  to  the  city  ;  the  majority  was  so  poor  that  they 
had  not  a  single  inch  of  land,  and  all  the  property  was 
in  the  hands  of  a  small  number  of  private  individuals. 
...  It  was  immediately  put  into  execution.  He 
divided  the  land  of  Laconia  into  thirty  thousand  por- 
tions, which  he  distributed  to  the  people  of  the  country, 
and  of  the  territory  of  Sparta  he  made  nine  thousand 
parcels,  which  he  distributed  to  a  corresponding  num- 
ber of  citizens.  .  .  .  He  abolished  all  gold  and  silver 
money,  and  oj-dained  that  only  iron  coin  should  be 
used,  and  this  he  had  made  of  so  great  weight  and  so 
little  value  that  it  required  a  cart  and  two  oxen  to  carry 
a  sum  of  ten  mina,i  and  a  whole  room  wherein  to  store 
it."  This  passage  from  Plutarch  has  long  seemed  fitted 
to  delight  the  hearts  of  the  adversaries  of  socialism,  and 
to  vex  its  friends.  In  fact,  it  evokes  the  memory  of  an 
unsuccessful  attempt  to  establish  equality  of  conditions 
among  men,  and  this  attempt  is  one  of  the  most  radical 

1  The  mina  was  worth  ninety-three  francs  (about  $18.60). 


392  THE  EVOLUTION   OF  FRANCE. 

which  has  ever  been  made.  Others,  less  famous,  have 
not  turned  out  more  fortunately.  Society  rests  upon 
these  successive  checks.  It  does  not  believe  in  social- 
ism ;  it  considers  that  it  has  been  condemned  by  experi- 
ence as  well  as  by  reason,  and  watches  its  progress  with 
much  more  curiosity  than  anxiety.  But  appearances 
must  have  been  very  strong  to  mislead  Gambetta  him- 
self, and  to  have  led  him  to  deny  the  existence  of  the 
social  question.  By  referring  to  that  ringing  speech, 
which  dates  but  from  yesterday,  we  can  measure  the 
road  traversed,  and  come  to  the  conclusion  that  public 
opinion  has  been  far  from  paying  to  social  ideas  the 
attention  befitting  so  great  a  movement. 

In  order  to  follow  well  its  different  phases,  the  first 
requisite  would  have  been  to  guard  oneself  against  any 
contact  with  the  past ;  for  nothing  in  the  past  permits 
of  our  forming  any  conclusion  as  to  the  possibility  or 
the  impossibility  of  socialistic  organization.  If  social- 
ism is  impossible,  it  is  because  it  bears  within  itself  the 
germ  of  a  capital  incompetency,  because  it  is  in  opposi- 
tion to  some  great  sociological  law,  as  yet  undiscovered  ; 
but  it  is  not  because  the  experience  of  mankind  has  pro- 
nounced against  it.  Its  fundamental  doctrines  have 
been  applied  only  locally  and  partially,  while,  by  their 
very  nature,  they  exact  universality  of  time  and  of 
place.  It  may  be  said  of  socialism  that  it  will  become 
universal  or  that  it  will  not  exist  at  all.  The  great 
inventions  which  have  shortened  distances  for  the  indi- 
vidual and  suppressed  them  for  thought ;  modern  in- 
dustry which  has  agglomerated  workers  and  has  made 
them  more  dependent  upon  each  other ;  science  which 
has  emancipated  minds ;  democracy  which  has  permeated 
manners,  —  all  these  changes  alone  have  rendered  pos- 
sible the  convincing  experiment  of  socialism. 


THE  SOCIAL    QUESTION.  393 

On  the  other  hand,  the  word  itself  is  apt  to  produce 
confusion,  because  it  is  employed  in  an  absolute  sense, 
by  pushing  to  an  extreme,  and  even  to  absurdity  the 
ideas  which  it  expresses.^  Hence,  one  gets  a  glimpse 
of  "  a  social  state  wherein  all  individual  effort  will  be 
stifled,  where  each  one  of  the  workers  will  rest,  sleep, 
and  eat,  at  the  word  of  command  of  the  superiors  set 
on  guard  over  food,  work,  recreation,  and  the  perfect 
equality  of  all."^  It  is  rather  puerile  to  reason  in  this 
manner.  One  must  not  forget  that  the  socialists  are 
not  all  communists  dreaming  of  "  the  absorption  of  all 
property  and  all  enterprise  in  the  omnipotence  of  the 
State,"  ^  and  that  many  of  them  simply  aim  at  a  collective 
intervention  with  the  object  of  re-establishing  in  society 
an  equilibrium  which  is  always  on  the  point  of  being 
destroyed.  In  1840  M.  Thiers  uttered,  in  the  Cham- 
ber, these  amusing  words :  "  Do  you  think  that  rail- 
ways will  ever  supplant  stage-coaches  ?  "  And  all  the 
deputies  burst  out  laughing  at  the  enormity  of  the  sup- 
position I  In  our  day,  the  state  of  the  public  mind  in 
certain  circles  is  not  without  analogy  with  that  of  the 
deputies  of  1840.  Nevertheless,  we  need  give  but  one 
glance  to  perceive  the  progress  accomplished  by  the 
socialists,  —  a  progress  which  is  invested  with  precisely 
that  character  of  universality  without  which,  as  we 
have  said,  socialism  would  have  neither  sense  nor 
scope.*      In    Germany,    the   socialist  party  which,  in 

1  See  M.  Richter's  famous  pamphlet,  Ok  Mine  le  Socialisme. 

2Ze  Temps  (1895). 

3  Sigismoud  Lacroix  (the  Radioed). 

*  Socialism  appears  to  be  the  natural  fruit  of  civilization  which  has 
reached  a  certain  degree  of  advancement.  It  is  identical  for  all  the 
nations  of  the  world  which  have  attained  to  that  degree,  and  manifests 
itself  under  a  different  form  only  in  those  countries  which  have  not  at- 
tained to  it,  Russia,  for  example,  and  Turkej' ;  on  the  other  hand,  it  rises 
superior  to  political  constitutions.     Its  most  ijowerful  and   formidable 


394  THE  EVOLUTION  OF  FRANCE. 

1871,  received  101,927  votes,  and  355,670  in  1874,  got 
1,800,000  in  1893,  and  its  representatives  in  the  Reich- 
stag are  no  less  in  number  than  46.  England,  that 
land  of  individualism,  has  seen  its  trades-unions  give 
in  their  adherence  to  the  collectivist  platforms  of 
the  congresses  of  Belfast  and  Norwich  (1893),  and 
eleven  workingmen  members  enter  Westminster.  The 
Belgian  Parliament  includes  29  socialists ;  the  Danish 
Folkething  has  61 ;  the  federal  Senate  of  the  United 
States,  22.  In  France,  the  socialistic  candidates  had 
only  90,000  votes  in  1890;  in  1893  they  receive  500,000, 
and  60  of  their  men  were  elected.  "  At  the  end  of  a 
hundred  years,  the  order  of  things  which  sprang  from 
1789  has  to  face  adversaries  more  rancorous  and  more 
implacable  than  were  the  privileged  classes,  a  hundred 
years  ago,  towards  the  Revolution  which  dispossessed 
them."^  It  is  interesting  to  ask  oneself  how,  particu- 
larly in  France,  we  have  come  to  such  a  pass,  and  by 
what  means  such  a  situation  can  be  unravelled. 

Socialistic  action  has  been  triple, — political,  intellect- 
ual, and  violent.  Political  means  have  produced  great 
results.  Though  decried  by  the  impatient,  they  have 
ended,  in  a  short  time,  in  the  formation  of  an  impor- 
tant parliamentary  minority ;  the  ballot  and  congresses 
have  done  more  for  the  cause  of  the  social  revolution 
than  strikes  and  dynamite. 

In  the  municipal  elections  of   1881,  57  coUectivists 

adversary,  Bismarck,  could  not  subdue  it;  the  liberty  which  it  enjoys  in 
England  is  no  more  favorable  to  it  than  the  hostility  with  which  it  is  con- 
fronted in  Grermany. 

1  When  he  received  a  reporter  of  the  Journal,  in  1892,  M.  Crispi  made 
to  him  this  melancholy  declaration:  "The  middle  class  {bourgeoisie)  is 
strongly  attacked ;  it  seems  destined  not  to  endure  as  long  as  the  feudal 
power.  This  affords  matter  for  gloomy  meditation,  especially  when  one 
reflects  that  the  education  of  the  fourth  Estate  has  not  been  completed." 
LLe  Temps,  December  26,  1892.) 


THE  SOCIAL   QUESTION.  896 

and  communists  presented  themselves  as  candidates  in 
Paris ;  their  platform  permitted  the  establishment  of 
municipal  workshops,  the  suppression  of  the  police,  and 
a  revenue  tax.  They  received,  in  all,  14,174  votes,  and 
not  one  of  them  was  elected.  In  August,  1893,  an 
effort  was  made,  on  the  occasion  of  the  elections  for 
the  General  Councils,  and  a  socialist  —  one  only  —  was 
elected  in  the  Nievre.  In  1885,  for  the  general  elec- 
tions, the  party  drew  up  a  manifesto  which  was  any- 
thing but  explicit ;  it  spoke  of  the  ' '  Versailles  reac- 
tion," and  the  anxiety  "  to  wrest  the  Republic  from  the 
wealthy  "  was  only  sketched  in  the  background.  The 
socialists  did  not  disturb  the  festivities  of  1889 ;  not 
knowing  what  Boulangism  was  about  to  bring  forth, 
they  postponed  their  projects  ;  soon  they  lost  the  hope 
of  seeing  the  parliamentary  Republic  sunk  in  a  civil 
war  with  the  middle  classes,  and  they  no  longer  ex- 
pected from  any  one  but  themselves  the  realization  of 
their  theories.  The  year  1891  beheld  "a  significant 
separation  effected  between  the  defenders  and  adversa- 
ries of  paternal  government. "  ^  In  1892,  at  last,  the 
socialists  had  a  grand  battle  with  the  municipality,  the 
result  of  which  "figured  up  160,000  votes,  736  mem- 
bers elected,  and  29  city  halls  carried  by  assault."* 
Since  that  date,  we  may  consider  that  the  socialists 
form  a  political  party  which  will  exercise  an  influence 
on  general  politics.  In  fact,  on  the  approach  of  the 
elections  of  1889,  a  genuine  concentration  to  their  ad- 
vantage took  place.  The  vanguard  of  the  radical  party 
came  over  to  them.  At  the  end  of  an  important  meet- 
ing held  at  Albi,  M.  Millerand  writes :  "  The  revolu- 
tionary socialist  fractions  have  grasped  the  utility  of 

1  Andr^  Daniel,  L'Ann^e  Politique,  1891. 
*  Manifesto  of  the  Guesdist  party  in  1893. 


396  THE  EVOLUTION  OF  FRANCE. 

electoral  action.  They  have  proclaimed  the  necessity 
of  union.  All  that  remains  is,  to  pass  from  words  to 
deeds.  In  this  country  there  is  a  great  mass  of  disap- 
pointed electors  who  have  made  their  escape  from  the 
lists  and  groups  which  have  so  long  restrained  them. 
Socialism  can  and  ought  to  rally  them.  It  will  not  fail 
in  its  task."  ^  It  is  an  epoch  of  conversions  on  the  Left. 
M.  Jaures,  who  returns  from  the  Left  Centre,  and  M. 
Goblet,  who  comes  from  nearer  by,  are  among  the  cate- 
chumens. The  former  is  a  university  man,  a  professor 
endowed  with  remarkable  talent,  and  no  less  remarka- 
ble activity,  and  always  ready  to  place  both  at  the 
service  of  the  socialistic  idea.  The  latter,  whom 
we  have  seen  in  power,  has  been,  by  turns,  an  ad- 
vanced republican,  then  a  radical,  and,  most  of  all, 
progressist.  Ideas  become  modified  in  the  socialistic 
sense,  but  with  a  certain  moderation  and  relative  slow- 
ness. In  the  speech  which  he  made  at  Bordeaux,  in 
May,  1893,  the  latter  declares  that,  instead  of  allying 
themselves  with  the  opportunists,  true  radicals  must, 
henceforth,  ally  themselves  with  the  socialists,  on  the 
sole  condition  that  these  last  named  "shall  distinctly 
repudiate  violence,  and  demand  the  triumph  of  their 
ideas  only  through  legal  and  pacific  means,"  and,  also, 
that  they  shall  cease  to  discard  the  idea  of  country. 
The  ballot  gives  an  unforeseen  and  surprising  result ; 
the  socialist  candidates  obtain  599,588  votes.  Never- 
theless, public  opinion  is  not  alarmed. 

During  this  period,  international  good  understanding 
progresses  by  means  of  congresses :  national  congresses, 
where  the  representatives  of  one  people  try  to  come 
into  harmony,  with  a  view  to  facilitating,  later  on,  the 
good  understanding  between  nations,  and  international 

1  The  Petite  Ripublique  Fran^aise,  April  25, 1893. 


THE  SOCIAL   QUESTION.  397 

congresses,  where  the  effort  is  made  to  lay  the  founda- 
tions of  that  understanding.  In  France  we  are  very- 
much  behindhand  in  organizing  congresses.  The  one 
which  the  socialists  attempted  to  assemble  in  Paris,  on 
the  occasion  of  the  Exposition  of  1878,  was  prohibited 
by  the  Prefect  of  Police.  The  majority  of  public  opin- 
ion approves  of  governmental  strictness ;  up  to  a  cer- 
tain point,  it  shares  the  distrust  of  the  Senate  with 
regard  to  the  workingman,  when  the  question  of  cer- 
tificate-books comes  up  (1883)  ;  ^  it  sides  with  Jules 
Ferry  when  he  defends  the  liberty  of  labor,  in  that 
great  debate  on  the  social  question,  which  was  opened 
in  the  Chamber  in  188-4. 

Beginning  with  1891,^  congresses  multiply  in  num- 
ber. In  1892  the  Congress  of  Marseilles  is  marked 
by  important  debates  ;  the  celebrated  Liebknecht  is 
heard  to  utter  formidable  words,  proving  that,  on  the 
other  side  of  the  frontier,  socialist  convictions  do  not 
weaken  Germanic  sentiment.  Bebel  still  further  em- 
phasizes Liebknecht's  attitude  by  the  declarations  to 
which  he  gives  expression  in  the  following  year,  before 
the  Congress  of  Zurich  (1893).  The  mirage  of  uni- 
versal union  and  fraternity  vanishes  ;  nationality,  on 
the  contrary,  is  strongly  marked  in  the  vote  of  the  dele- 
gations, without  the  desire  of  effecting  an  understanding 
between  the  working  classes  of  all  countries,  —  an 
understanding  very  necessary  to  their  hopes,  —  being 

1  Certificate-books  for  workmen  had  been  suppressed  by  the  Chamber, 
the  Senate  consented  to  the  suppression  of  the  obligation,  but  mentioned 
the  workman's  right  to  have  a  certificate-book,  which  amounted  to  re- 
establishing the  right  of  the  employer  to  demand  that  the  workman  should 
produce  it. 

2  Between  1878  and  1891,  there  was  a  long  series  of  congresses  organized 
in  France  by  different  socialist  groups.  These  congresses  are  important 
only  because  of  the  manifold  divisions  of  opinion  which  were  there  repre- 
sented.   We  shall  return  to  this  subject  shortly. 


398  THE  EVOLUTION  OF  FRANCE. 

weakened  thereby.  It  is  a  curious  moment ;  the 
dreams,  chimerical  hopes,  sentimentalities,  which  have 
so  long  sustained  the  socialists,  make  way  for  calcula- 
tions, reasonings,  practical  resolutions.  During  this 
same  year,  the  international  congress  of  miners  is  held 
at  Brussels ;  the  English  delegation,  which  comprises 
eminent  personages,  holds  its  warrant  from  340,000 
syndicated  miners.^  Bristol  witnesses  the  assembling 
of  the  Congress  of  British  co-operators,  while  Rheims 
and  Toulouse  show  hospitality  to  socialist  assemblies. 

Still  more  active  is  the  year  1894.  There  are : 
four  congresses  of  the  general  Union  of  the  Working- 
men  of  Spain,  and  the  Fourth  Congress  of  the  Spanish 
working  party,  which  follow,  one  the  other,  at  Madrid, 
in  the  month  of  August ;  the  Thirty-fourth  Congress  of 
the  Trades-Unions  of  England,^  which  opens  at  Nor- 
wich ;  the  Fifth  Congress  of  the  Italian  socialist  party, 
which  is  held  in  September  at  Imola,  while  in  October 
German  socialism  assembles  for  the  seventeenth  time 
at  Frankfort.  In  France,  congresses  take  place  at 
Tours,  Dijon,  and  at  Nantes  (the  Twelfth  Congress  of 
the  French  workman's  party).  M.  Jules  Guesde,  who 
recapitulates  all  these  manifestations  with  undeniable 
vitality,  exclaims :  "  A  party  which,  from  one  end  of 
Europe  to  the  other,  presents  the  spectacle  of  such 
unity  as  this,  is  a  party  to  whom  the  morrow  belongs. 
.  .  .  None  of  the  great  social  transformations,  none  of 
the  real  revolutions  which  have  changed  the  face  of 
the  world  in  the  past,  has  ever  been  preceded  by  the 

1  Out  of  a  total  of  650,000  possessed  by  Great  Britain. 

2  As  we  have  said  above,  the  trades-unions  pronounced  in  favor  of 
collectivism.  In  1893  they  had  displayed  strong  tendencies  in  this  direc- 
tion; in  1894  they  had,  by  a  very  large  majority,  "invited  their  two 
million  members  to  vote,  at  legislative  and  municipal  elections,  only  for 
those  candidates  who  had  accepted  the  coUectivist  programme." 


THE  SOCIAL   QUESTION.  399 

general    manifestation    of    such   a    common    state    of 
minds.  "^ 

This  quest  after  an  international  understanding  no 
longer  has  anything  secret  or  shady  about  it ;  is  it  for 
this  reason  that  less  attention  is  paid  to  it  ?  Fantastic 
tales  singularly  exaggerated  the  danger  so  long  as  it 
was  only  a  question  of  a  handful  of  agitators  formed 
into  a  secret  society.  Now  that  social  claims  are  put 
into  words,  in  broad  daylight,  by  a  large  mass  of  citi- 
zens, security  seems  to  be  restored  to  their  adversaries. 
The  annual  demonstration,  called  the  demonstration  of 
the  first  of  May,  whose  importance  arises,  in  great  part, 
from  the  peaceful  character  which  it  has  borne  so  far, 
is  the  result  of  the  efforts  towards  unity  of  aim,  and  the 
similarity  of  means.  It  is,  at  the  same  time,  a  general 
review  of  the  socialist  forces.  One  finds  some  difficulty 
in  taking  it  seriously.  Nevertheless,  those  who  saw 
John  Burns  ^  in  Hyde  Park,  London,  on  May  7,  1893, 
harangue,  from  a  cart  transformed  into  a  tribune,  the 
100,000  disciplined  men  massed  around  him,  were  able 
to  convince  themselves  that  the  "  Platonic  "  character 
of  the  demonstration  was  quite  apparent. 

Of  violent  means  the  mildest  is  the  strike,  when  it 
ends  without  bloodshed.  In  France  it  has  rarely  been 
stained  with  blood ;  its  legitimacy  was,  none  the  less, 
disputed.^     The  right  was  denied  to  the  workingmen  to 

1  The  Matin,  September  14,  1894. 

2  The  English,  being  practical  people,  carry  over  the  demonstration  to 
the  first  Sunday  in  May,  in  order  to  avoid  unnecessary  waste  of  time. 

8  The  strike  is  an  ancient  fact  in  the  world.  It  existed  in  Egypt,  under 
Ramses  II.  It  is  to  be  observed,  that,  in  France,  during  the  last  century, 
it  had  already  assumed  most  of  its  present  characteristics.  In  1724,  as 
M.  Franz  Funck-Breutane  relates  in  the  Revue  Retrospective,  a  number  of 
printers  having  been  summoned  from  Germany  to  Paris  by  master-printers, 
a  lowering  of  wages  ensued,  and  a  general  protest.  A  young  workman, 
Fran9ois  Thominet,  twenty-three  years  of  age,  was  at  the  head  of  the 


400  THE  EVOLUTION   OF  FRANCE. 

defend  their  interests  by  a  simultaneous  cessation  of 
labor ;  such  an  act  seemed  a  crime  against  society. 
With  still  more  reason  were  they  denied  the  right  to 
strike  for  a  moral  cause.  The  "point  of  honor"  has 
often  provoked  their  resistance.  This  was  notably  the 
case  in  the  celebrated  strike  of  Carmaux.  The  work- 
ingmen  were  contending  for  their  political  liberty  ;  the 
company  was  contending  for  its  right  of  directorship ;  ^ 
it  used  it  awkwardly,  but  it  existed,  none  the  less. 
Under  any  other  circumstances  one  would  have  admired 
the  remarkable  spirit  of  solidarity,  the  power  of  self- 
sacrifice  for  an  idea,  of  which  the  Carmaux  strikers 
gave  proof.  But  passion  blinds,  and  their  conduct  was 
censured  in  an  unjust  and  thoughtless  manner. 

In  1892  there  were  261  strikes  in  France,  which 
affected  500  establishments  and  50,000  workmen.  In 
1893,  634  strikes  affected  4386  establishments  and 
170,123  workmen ;  the  latter  lost,  on  this  account, 
3,174,000  days'  labor.  On  the  other  hand,  5  coalitions 
of  employers  were  organized :  3  by  butchers  and  2  by 
bakers.  Out  of  the  634  strikes,  443  affected  one  estab- 
lishment only ;  72  affected  from  2  to  5 ;  30  from  6  to  10  ; 


movement;  he  was  seized,  and  was  imprisoned  in  secret,  in  the  Petit-Cha- 
telet  for  many  months.  That  same  year  the  hosiers  struck  because  their 
wages  had  been  reduced.  The  syndic  of  the  merchant-hosiers  asked  the 
Comptroller-General  to  proceed  with  rigor  against  the  "  plotters."  Strike, 
coalition,  assessments  to  maintain  the  strike,  threats,  attacks  on  the  liberty 
of  labor,  —  everything  passed  off  as  in  our  day.  Only  the  arbitrary  order 
of  imprisonment  got  the  better  of  the  ringleaders. 

1  It  is  to  be  noted  that  the  same  case  presented  itself  at  Saint-Denis ; 
the  employers,  being  wiser,  afforded  to  the  workman  elected  as  Mayor 
every  facility  for  discharging  the  duties  of  his  office.  It  will  be  remem- 
bered that  the  origin  of  the  conflict  at  Carmaux  was  the  election  to  the 
mayoralty  and  to  the  District  Council  of  the  workman  Calvignac,  and  the 
discharge  by  the  company  of  this  same  Calvignac,  without  any  other  plau- 
sible reason  than  the  dignity  which  had  been  conferred  on  him  by  universal 
suffrage. 


THE  SOCIAL   QUESTION.  401 

onlj  7  strikes  affected  more  than  100  establishments ; 
24.5  per  cent  were  crowned  with  success  ;  32.5  per  cent 
ended  in  a  compromise;  43  per  cent  ended  in  defeat.  In 
the  majority  of  cases  the  strike  was  caused  by  a  demand 
for  an  increase  of  wages,  or  by  a  preliminary  reduction ; 
58  strikes  arose  out  of  sympathy  for  the  discharge  of 
workmen,  or  from  other  causes  of  the  same  nature.  The 
force  of  resistance  was  considerable :  59  strikes  lasted 
from  15  to  30  days ;  68,  from  30  to  200  ;  7  lasted  more 
than  100  days.^  A  "general  strike"  has  often  been  talked 
of  as  a  formidable  weapon,  which  would  serve  to  para- 
lyze the  march  of  affairs  in  the  world  ;  but  this  weapon 
would  turn  first  against  those  who  forged  it.  However, 
that  is  a  drawback  which  is  common  to  nearly  all 
strikes.  "  The  time  for  strikes  is  over,"  said  John 
Burns  at  Hyde  Park,  on  May  7,  1893,  thereby  indicat- 
ing that  there  are  other  means,  efficacious  arid  less  dan- 
gerous, for  attaining  the  object  aimed  at.  Moreover, 
it  must  be  borne  in  mind  that,  in  a  great  number  of 
cases,  the  workmen  have  not  acted  of  themselves  or 
wholly  of  their  own  volition.  Even  before  the  social- 
ists succeeded  in  forming  a  compact  group  in  the  heart 
of  the  French  Parliament,  there  existed  commercial 
travellers  who  dealt  in  strikes,  who  were  always  ready 
to  betake  themselves  to  a  place  where  a  conflict  threat- 
ened to  break  out.  The  celebrated  type  of  the  carpet- 
bagger, created  in  the  Southern  States  of  America  by 
the  emancipation  of  the  negroes,  was  reproduced  among 
us  with  the  difference  that  the  French  carpet-bagger 
was  often  a  man  of  convictions,  and  sometimes  slipped 
in  a  bit  of  good  advice  among  a  great  quantity  of  bad 
advice. 

Even  the  most  spiritless  strike  must  be  ranked  among 

1  Statistics  of  the  Ministry  of  Commerce,  copied  in  Le  Temps. 
2d 


402  THE  EVOLUTION   OF  FRANCE. 

the  class  of  violent  means,  because  it  always  causes  some 
damage.  But  it  is  not  always  spiritless;  it  has  brought 
about  real  financial  disasters  which  have  affected  the 
innocent ;  it  has  even  occasioned  the  greatest  unhappi- 
ness,  individual  crimes,  barbarous  repression,  and  so 
forth.  The  scale  of  violence  continues  to  ascend  even 
to  the  "propaganda  by  deeds,"  dear  to  the  anarchists. 
Nothing  belies  the  theory  that  a  contradiction  exists 
between  the  anarchist  conception,  in  which  there  is  no 
longer  any  State,  and  the  coUectivist  conception,  in  which 
the  State  is  everything.  But  one  finds  some  difficulty 
in  demonstrating  the  non-existence,  in  practice,  of  a 
bond  between  the  coUectivists  and  the  anarchists.  Mr. 
Herbert  Spencer  has  said  that  the  doctrines  of  the 
communists  may  bring  about  "  a  return  to  the  struggle 
for  existence,  such  as  exists  among  brutes."^  It  ap- 
pears that  an  anarchist  press  existed  from  the  epoch  of 
the  explosions  at  Montceau-les-Mines  (September,  1882). 
The  trial  of  Prince  Krapotkin,  and  of  his  "compan- 
ions "  implicated  in  the  proceedings,  proved  this.  Men 
were  already  enchanted  with  the  prospect  of  blowing  up 
"speculators,  capitalists,  and  the  middle  classes";  but 
anarchy  seems  to  be  a  state  of  mind  rather  than  a  sect. 
It  has  acted  ;  it  has  written  little.  The  most  interest- 
ing document  in  which  its  theories  are  expounded  is 
the  declaration  read  by  Emile  Henry,  on  April  29, 
1894,  before  the  jury  which  condemned  him  to  death. ^ 
This  declaration  is  remarkable  in  more  than  one  re- 
spect. Therein  one  clearly  follows  the  genesis  of  the 
social  hatred  which  develops  in  the  hearts  of  the  re- 
volters,  but  one  does  not  gather  the  slightest  elucida- 

1  Letter  addressed  to  Le  Figaro,  dated  January  24, 1894. 

2  :6mile  Henry  confessed  the  authorship  of  the  crimes  of  the  Rue  des 
Bons-Eufants  and  the  Caf^  Terminus. 


THE  SOCIAL   QUESTION.  403 

tion  as  to  the  solution  which  they  have  in  view ;  on  the 
other  hand,  one  does  perceive  the  traces  of  an  incom- 
mensurate pride  which  completely  blinds  them  as  to 
the  consequences  of  their  acts.  "  I  have  desired  to  show 
to  the  middle  classes,"  exclaims  Emile  Henry  emphati- 
cally, "that  henceforth  there  are  no  more  complete 
joys  for  them  !  "  It  is  evident  that  the  "  companions," 
as  they  call  themselves,  are,  in  a  manner,  hypnotized  by 
the  mystery  with  which  they  surround  themselves,  by 
the  conversations  which  they  hold  with  each  other, 
by  a  sort  of  faith  in  their  mission,  if  one  may  employ 
such  terms  in  speaking  of  such  criminals.  The  proof 
of  this  is,  that,  once  they  step  out  of  their  circle, 
once  they  are  torn  away  from  its  deleterious  interests, 
they  perceive  things  from  a  different  angle.  Antoine 
Cyvoct,  who  was  condemned  to  death  in  1883,  in  con- 
sequence of  an  explosion  in  the  Cafe  Bellecour,  in 
Lyons,  and  had  had  his  sentence  commuted  to  per- 
petual hard  labor,  sent  to  his  friends,  from  the  lie  Nou, 
in  January,  1894,  a  letter  in  which,  after  having  de- 
clared his  sympathy  with  them,  he  said  to  them : 
"Wrench  yourselves  away  from  that  sort  of  over- 
excitement  which  prevents  your  having  a;  clear  view  of 
the  goal  at  which  you  aim ;  resist  that  sort  of  tendency 
to  take  the  bit  in  your  teeth,  which  leads  you  to  the 
worst  excesses,  and  understand  at  last  that  it  is  not  by 
deeds  of  violence,  which  arouse  universal  reprobation, 
that  revolutions  are  prepared,  but  by  winning  hearts,  by 
captivating  minds.  Tell  yourselves,  plainly  moreover, 
that  if  the  last  member  of  the  middle  classes  were  to 
die  to-morrow,  things  would  not  be  any  the  more  ad- 
vanced ;  for  you  would  still  have  against  you  thousands  of 
workers,  whom  it  would  be  necessary  to  convert  to  your 
principles  before  you  could  think  of  applying  them." 


404  THE  EVOLUTION   OF  FRANCE. 

"  To  win  hearts  and  captivate  minds,"  is  precisely  what 
neither  politics  nor  violence  can  compass.  The  sensible 
socialists  are  perfectly  well  aware  how  precious  for  this 
task  is  "  intellectual "  action.  While  democratic  insti- 
tutions and  also  military  service  develop  the  spirit  of 
equality,  the  contact  of  extreme  misery  and  of  exagger- 
ated fortunes  has  developed  the  spirit  of  pity.  The 
co-existence,  in  the  city,  of  wealth  and  poverty  is  so 
universal  and  so  ancient  a  phenomenon,  that  one  is 
accustomed  to  regard  it  as  an  evil  which  cannot  be 
remedied,  and  the  hatred  of  the  poor  for  the  rich  is  no 
longer  suitable  at  the  present  time.  The  articles  of 
Pere  Peinard  hardly  approach,  in  the  bitterness  of 
their  demands,  the  Sibylline  poets. ^  At  certain  epochs, 
nevertheless,  and  in  certain  countries,  one  would  say 
that  hatred  was  soothed,  and  that  the  claims  become 
less  brutal  and  less  thoroughgoing.  This  takes  place 
when  wealth  is  fixed,  when  those  who  help  earn  money 
can  see  it  spent  before  their  eyes,  and  can,  in  a  manner, 
control  its  employment.  The  peasant  attached  to  the 
soil,  the  workman  busy  in  the  factory,  revolt  far  less 
against  inheritance  which  transmits  property,  or  against 
the  boss  who  drains  the  profits  of  industry,  than  against 
the  sort  of  anonymous  form  in  which  the  wealth,  ob- 
tained by  their  efforts,  is  circulated.     Almost  all  the 

1  "  The  rich,  in  order  to  augment  their  domains,  and  to  obtain  for 
themselves  servitors,  pillage  the  wretched.  Ah!  If  the  earth  were  not 
fixed  so  far  from  the  sky,  they  would  contrive  that  the  light  should  not  be 
equally  shared  by  all.  The  sun,  purchased  with  gold,  would  no  longer 
shine  for  any  but  the  rich,  and  God  would  have  been  forced  to  make 
another  world  for  the  poor."  (Vol.  III.)  M.  Gaston  Boissier  {La  Fin  du 
Paganisme)  cites,  in  addition,  this  dream  of  the  future  which  must  have 
disturbed  more  than  one  brain:  "The  land  will  then  be  parcelled  out 
among  all  the  people.  It  will  not  be  divided  by  limits,  it  will  not  be 
enclosed  in  walls.  There  will  no  longer  be  either  beggar  or  rich  man, 
either  master  or  slave,  either  small  or  great ;  there  will  be  no  kings  or 
chieftains:  everything  will  belong  to  all  men."    (II.  320.) 


THE  SOCIAL   QUESTION.  406 

aristocracies  of  the  past  have  been  killed  by  absentee- 
ism ;  and  in  our  day,  absenteeism  is  worse  than  ever 
before.  Another  germ  of  social  hatred  is  stock-jobbing 
under  its  multiple  forms;  it  permits  of  the  rapid  amass- 
ing of  fortunes,  without  the  right  of  possession,  which 
results  from  its  sense  of  legal  transmission  or  regular 
labor,  being  perceptible  to  the  masses.  Thus  a  sort  of 
financial  feudal  state  has  been  created ;  society  "  bears 
with  all  its  weight  upon  a  single  pillar,  —  the  pillar  of 
money."  ^  "  On  the  one  hand,"  writes  Leo  XIII., 
drawing  a  picture  of  social  ills,^  —  "  on  the  one  hand, 
omnipotence  in  opulence ;  a  fraction  which,  absolute 
master  of  industries  and  commerce,  turns  aside  the 
course  of  riches,  and  makes  all  springs  flow  into  it ;  a 
fraction  which,  moreover,  holds  in  its  hand  more  than 
one  department  of  public  administration.  On  the 
other,  feebleness  with  indigence  ;  a  multitude  which, 
with  ulcerated  soul,  always  gives  rise  to  disorder." 

Not  only  does  excess  of  luxury  result  in  the  increase 
of  poverty  itself,  by  diminishing  the  resources  which 
might  be  employed  by  the  rich  to  assuage  it:  it  also 
renders  it  more  difficult  to  endure.  The  inequality  of 
conditions  does  better  than  merely  make  an  impression 
on  the  mind ;  it  explains  itself  philosophically  and 
economically ;  but  this  sort  of  party  wall  between  the 
lavish  squandering  of  some  and  the  absolute  destitution 
of  others,  cannot  long  subsist  without  superinducing  a 
current  of  rebellion  which  drags  along  with  it  the  fort- 
unate as  well  as  the  disinherited,  thanks  to  that  innate 
sense  of  justice  which  the  passions  sometimes  obliterate 
in  man,  though  they  never  succeed  in  entirely  effacing 

1  E.-M.  de  Vogiie,  L'Heure  Prisente.  {Revue  des  Deux  Mondes,  Decem- 
ber 15, 1892.) 

2  The  encyclical  Rerum  Novarum. 


406  TEE  EVOLUTION   OF  FRANCE. 

them.  Thus  it  comes  about  that  the  ringing  formula 
launched  by  Tolstoy  has  found  an  echo  in  all  circles, 
and  that  the  "religion  of  human  suffering"  has  gathered 
together  disciples  culled  from  all  churches,  even  from 
that  of  incredulity.  "  A  tacit,  unconscious  conspiracy 
has  been  formed  between  people  whom  everything  sep- 
arates, from  the  proletariat  which  hurls  itself  blindly 
against  the  social  machine,  even  to  the  patented  conduc- 
tors of  that  machine.  The  conspiracy  begins  with  hatred 
at  the  bottom,  and  ends  in  vague  pity  at  the  top ;  it 
unites  the  efforts  of  the  man  of  action,  and  the  favor  of 
the  man  of  thought ;  it  draws  together,  unwittingly  on 
their  part,  all  those  who  suffer  from  the  old  order  of 
things,  all  those  who  enjoy  it  and  despise  it ;  by  paths 
the  most  diverse,  it  urges  them  on,  pell-mell,  to  the 
same  goal,  the  goal  aimed  at  by  the  one  set,  dreaded  by 
the  other,  which  marches  towards  it  in  spite  of  itself."^ 

The  party  of  social  revolution  has  endeavored,  by 
political  means,  to  get  possession  of  the  government ; 
its  success  has  been  rapid  and  important ;  by  violent 
means  it  tried  to  frighten  capital,  and  seems  not  to  have 
succeeded ;  by  intellectual  means,  at  last,  it  has  infil- 
trated itself  into  public  opinion.  To  what  extent? 
The  future  alone  can  tell  us  that. 

In  France  two  capital  obstacles  bar  its  path,  in  a 
manner  more  apparent  than  real,  perhaps  :  the  first  is 
the  development  of  small  holdings  of  landed  property ; 
the  second  is  the  domestic  dissensions  which  exist  in 
her  very  bosom. 

The  territory  of  France  represents  52,857,000  hectares, 
of  which  49,561,861  are  under  agriculture.  Great  cult- 
ure (domains  of  from  40  to  300   hectares)  is   repre- 

1  E.-M.  de  Vogii^,  L'Heure  Pr^sente.  {Reviie  des  Deux  Mondes,  Decem- 
ber 15, 1892.) 


TBE  SOCIAL   QUESTION.  407 

sented  by  142,088  farms ;  ^  middling  culture  (from  10 
to  40),  by  727,222 ;  petty  culture  (from  1  to  10),  by 
2,635,030 ;  and,  in  conclusion,  very  petty  culture  (less 
than  one  hectare),  by  2,167,667. ^  Half  the  population 
of  France  lives  by  agriculture ;  one-quarter,  by  manu- 
factures; one-tenth,  by  commerce;  f our  one-hundredths, 
by  the  so-called  liberal  professions ;  six  one-hundredths 
live  without  occupation  of  any  sort.^  The  statistics  of 
the  administration  of  direct  taxes  set  down  at  8,454,000 
the  number  of  rural  and  urban  properties  in  France. 
There  are  about  4,900,000  rural  proprietors,  and  the  cul- 
tivators who  develop  their  own  property  are,  in  round 
numbers,  2,150,700  against  468,000  farmers  and  194,400 
who  work  on  half  shares.  The  system  of  petty  holdings, 
which  is,  moreover,  of  very  ancient  date  in  France,*  is 
not  undergoing  diminution.  The  number  of  proprie- 
tors who  cultivate  their  own  land  was  only  1,812,573  in 
1862  against, 2,150,700  in  1882. 

These  few  figures  possess  an  eloquence  of  their  own ; 
they  show  that  the  industrial  population  has  no  strength 
in  comparison  with  the  agricultural  population,  but  that, 
on  the  other  hand,  nothing  could  resist  any  movement 
which  the   agricultural    laborers    and    the    industrial 

1  From  the  number  of  hectares  under  great  culture  must  be  deducted 
the  departmental  and  communal  property,  and  that  belonging  to  asylums, 
religious  congregations,  railways,  charity  bureaux,  and  so  forth,  about 
5,000,000  hectares. 

2  Report  of  M.  Tisserand  on  the  decennial  investigation  of  1882. 

8  Mines,  quarries,  factories,  industrial  works,  give  occupation  to 
1,130,000  individuals;  petty  industries,  6,093,000.  Commerce  includes 
789,000  bankers,  clerks,  wholesale  merchants;  1,896,000  shopkeepers; 
1,164,000  hotel-keepers,  cafe-keepers.  Railways  and  the  merchant  marine 
give  occupation  to  800,000  persons ;  State  employments,  805,000 ;  the  num- 
ber of  persons  who  live  on  their  incomes  is  1,849,000. 

*  See  Les  Populations  Rurales  de  la  France,  by  M.  Baudrillart;  Les 
Voyages  en  France,  of  Arthur  Young;  and  Leroy-Beaulieu,  La  Petite 
Propri^t6  Fonciere  en  France  et  a  I'^^tranger.  (Revue  des  Deux  Mondes, 
February  15, 1888.) 


408  THE  EVOLUTION  OF  FRANCE. 

laborers  should  agree  upon  together.  Is  such  an  agree- 
ment feasible  ?  Therein  lies  the  whole  question.  The 
socialists  do  not  appear  to  have  hit  upon  a  formula 
which  permits  them  to  set  in  opposition  the  two  types 
of  territorial  property.  But  they  are  seeking  after  such 
a  formula,!  and  the  very  term  "peasant  property,"  of 
which  they  are  beginning  to  make  use,  indicates  the 
object  of  their  strivings.  They  must  conquer,  on  the 
one  hand,  the  aversion  of  the  petty  proprietor  for  those 
whom  he  calls  the  "  sharers,"  and,  on  the  other  hand, 
bring  about  a  compromise  between  the  irreconcilables 
of  the  party,  who  were  still  proclaiming,  at  the  recent 
Congress  of  Dijon  (1894),  the  inalienability  of  land. 
They  flatter  themselves  that  they  shall  attain  this  double 
result  without  much  delay.  It  is  the  fashion  to  say  that 
the  petty  proprietor  regards  the  large  estate  which  ad- 
joins his  as  safeguarding  his  rights,  and  that,  in  this 
manner,  he  is  induced  to  defend  it  against  all  attacks. 
It  is  doubtful  whether  this  sentiment  exists  beyond  the 
possible  extension  of  which  the  petty  proprietor  discerns 
the  possibility ;  he  gladly  cherishes  the  prospect  of  aug- 
menting his  own  possessions  ;  he  does  not  ask  that  the 
vast  domain  which  he  will  never  own  shall  be  protected.^ 
Moreover,  his  powerful  neighbor  often  oppresses  him, 
by  hemming  him  in  and  annihilating  him  ;  their  inter- 
ests are  not  identical ;  they  are  united,  but  it  is  possible 
to  separate  them.  As  for  the  extremists  of  communism, 
they  will  lay  down  their  arms  on  the  day  when  it  shall 
have  been  proved  to  them  by  facts,  that  the  absolute 
which  they  proclaim   is   precisely  the   obstacle  which 

1  See  the  articles  of  M.  Jaures  in  the  Ddpeche  de  Toulouse  (October, 
1893). 

2  This  was  wittily  expressed  by  a  deputy  whose  personal  revenues 
amounted  to  about  40,000  francs,  when  he  demanded  the  imposition  of  a 
special  tax  on  fortunes  which  exceeded  2,000,000  francs. 


TEE  SOCIAL   QUESTION.  409 

stands  in  the  way  of  the  realization  of  their  plans ;  such 
is  the  reasoning  of  the  "government  socialists." 

Neither  do  they  disquiet  themselves  over  the  divisions 
and  subdivisions  into  groups  and  subgroups  which 
weaken  socialism,  and  help  to  inspire  its  adversaries 
with  confidence.  A  glance  at  the  state  of  affairs  in  the 
French  socialist  camp  will  afford  a  better  comprehension 
of  the  security  of  both  parties. 

The  workingmen's  congresses  which  were  held  in 
Paris  in  1876,  and  in  Lyons  in  1878,  were  composed 
almost  exclusively  of  the  advocates  of  the  co-operation 
and  mutualism  preached  by  Prudhomme ;  they  repu- 
diated collectivism  and  the  employment  of  force. ^  But 
M.  Jules  Guesde,  by  his  influence,  which  was  already 
great,  succeeded  in  getting  collectivist  resolutions  passed 
as  early  as  1871  (Congress  of  Marseilles);  and  in  the 
following  3'ear,  at  the  Congress  of  Havre,  the  definitive 
rupture  took  place.  Jules  Guesde  had  brought  back 
from  London,  with  the  same  respect  as  Moses  when  he 
descended  from  Mount  Sinai,  the  new  tablets  of  law 
drawn  up  by  Marx  and  Engel ;  his  journal,  L'Ugalit^, 
played  an  important  part.  Still,  his  preponderance  was 
not  recognized  by  all.  The  amnestied  members  of  the 
Commune,  who  had  returned  from  Noumea,  looked  on 
him  rather  as  an  intruder. ^  Paul  Brousse  and  Joffrin, 
the  latter  very  popular  in  his  party,  announced  them- 
selves as  "  possibilists,"  that  is  to  say,  somewhat  in  the 
nature  of  opportunists  in  method.     They  succeeded  in 

1  Their  leader  was  M.  Barberet,  afterwards  chief  of  a  bureau  iu  the 
Ministry  of  the  Interior. 

-  Jules  Guesde,  whose  real  name  is  Mathieu  Basile,  had  done  nothing 
but  manage  a  newspaper  at  Montpellier,  and  had  supported  Gambetta's 
candidacy  there  in  1871.  It  was  known  that  he  had  expressed  disapproba- 
tion of  the  massacre  of  hostages,  and  had  done  homage  "  to  our  brave 
soldiers  who  can  fight,  but  who  never  assassinate." 


410  THE  EVOLUTION  OF  FRANCE. 

bringing  about  a  new  secession  in  1882,  at  the  Congress 
of  Saint-Etienne,  being  aided  therein  by  the  small  suc- 
cess which  the  socialist  candidates  had  scored  at  the  elec- 
tions of  1881 ;  303  groups  remained  at  Saint-Etienne ; 
32  groups,  under  the  direction  of  Jules  Guesde,  emi- 
grated to  Roanne.  The  Congress  of  Marseilles  had 
divided  the  country  into  six  regions,  which  had  for 
their  capitals,  Paris,  Lyons,  Marseilles,  Bordeaux,  Lille, 
and  Algiers.  The  federation  of  the  North  alone  re- 
mained Guesdist ;  the  others  followed  Paul  Brousse. 
But  Paul  Brousse  was  a  learned  man,  a  man  of  letters ; 
he  admitted  political  action,  which  that  same  Congress 
of  Marseilles  had  virtually  condemned  by  deciding  that 
the  deputies  and  the  municipal  councillors  could  not 
form  part  of  the  national  committee  placed  at  the  head 
of  the  party.*  Paul  Brousse  and  his  friends  got  the 
Congress  of  Paris  (1883)  to  suppress  this  clause.  This 
gave  rise  to  a  grand  battle.  One  congress  followed 
another  ;  each  anathematized  the  others  ;  the  rebellious 
syndicates  entered  the  lists  against  the  managers ;  and 
in  addition  to  the  Blanquists,  who  from  the  begin- 
ning had  remained  independent,  three  distinct  groups 
were  formed,  —  the  Allemanist,  the  Broussists,  and  the 
Guesdists.^ 

The  Allemanist  party,  so  called  from  its  leader,  Jean 
AUemane,  is  officially  styled:  the  Workingman's  Social- 
ist Revolutionary  party.  It  is  remarkable  for  its 
anonymousness  and  its  discipline.  AUemane,  who 
enjoyed  great  influence  in  the  quarter  of  Folie-Meri- 
cour,  in  Paris,^  is  a  modest  man.     He  has  taught  his 

1  See  the  remarkable  articles  of  M.  de  Seilhac  published  in  the  Revue 
Bleue  of  September  7  and  21,  October  5,  and  November  2,  1895,  from 
which  are  borrowed  the  greater  part  of  the  details  which  we  have  given 
here. 

2  In  1893  the  Allemanists  received  50,000  votes  in  Paris. 


THE  SOCIAL   QUESTION.  411 

disciples  to  distrust  politicians,  to  impose  upon  the  dep- 
uty of  their  choice  the  formality  of  a  "  blank  "  resigna- 
tion, which  places  the  man  elected  under  the  permanent 
domination  of  his  electors.  He  favors  strikes,  which 
he  calls  "  war  with  folded  arms,"  and  believes  in  the 
superiority  of  economical  methods.  The  Allemanist 
federations  are  four  in  number:  that  of  the  Centre 
(Paris)  comprises  sixty  groups  of  social  studies,  and 
twenty  syndicates  and  corporate  groups;  that  of  Ar- 
dennes (Charleville),  sixty  groups  or  syndicates,  the 
principal  one  being  the  syndicate  of  the  four  thousand 
weavers  of  Sedan ;  that  of  the  East  (Dijon),  and  that 
of  the  South  (Bordeaux),  each  of  which  represents 
forty  groups.  The  Broussists,  who  call  themselves  the 
Federation  of  the  Socialist  Laborers  of  France,  rule  in 
many  quarters  of  Paris  and  in  Touraine ;  they  are 
hostile  to  strikes.  Paul  Brousse,  whom  the  extreme 
views  of  Marx  repel,  is  a  State  socialist ;  he  professes 
the  "  let-alone  "  doctrine.  According  to  him,  the  pub- 
lic services  are  becoming,  one  after  the  other,  general 
and  gratuitous ;  all  that  is  needed  is  to  aid  the  move- 
ment ;  when  all  shall  have  been  transformed,  that  is 
communism. 

The  Guesdist  party  (the  French  workman's  party) 
is  the  personal  work  of  Jules  Guesde,  a  man  of  high 
intelligence  and  of  rare  energy,  which  nothing  daunts. 
When  he  was  abandoned  at  Saint-Etienne,  he  managed 
to  lay  the  foundations  of  a  new  grouping,  purely  politi- 
cal, it  is  true,  and  to  which  the  syndicates  do  not  give 
in  their  allegiance.  It  is  divided  into  the  federation  of 
the  South  (Bordeaux),  of  the  West  (Nantes),  of  the 
East  (Troyes),  of  the  Centre  (Paris),  and  of  the 
North  (Lille).  It  numbers  833  groups,  of  which  192 
belong  to  the  North  alone.     The  organization  is  rather 


412  THE  EVOLUTION  OF  FRANCE. 

unsettled,  it  is  true,  a  little  superficial ;  but  the  activity 
is  great,  and  the  results  are  undeniable. 

As  for  the  Blanquists  (the  central  revolutionary 
committee),  they  form  the  true  party  of  the  Revolu- 
tion, for  whom  all  means  are  good.  Their  centre  of 
action  is  in  the  department  of  Cher  ;  the  federations  of 
the  Cher  and  the  Allier  give  it,  with  its  Paris  groups, 
a  total  of  about  35,000  adherents.  The  divergences 
are  numerous,  as  will  be  perceived ;  but  if  one  may 
judge  from  the  votes  of  the  socialist  deputies  in  the 
Chamber,  they  do  not  perceptibly  interfere  with  a  good 
understanding.  "At  the  present  time,"  writes  M. 
Vaillant,  "only  shades  of  opinion  separate  the  social- 
ists, in  theory  ;  so  far  as  ideas  are  concerned,  modern 
socialism  is  the  same  in  all  countries,  and  for  all  par- 
ties."^ And  M.  Vaillant  further  pens  the  following 
lines,  which  furnish  interesting  food  for  thought,  in 
that  thej"  show  the  state  of  mind  of  one  of  the  most 
prominent  citizens  of  the  party :  "  Resolutions  are 
merely  political  and  social  crises,  which  eliminate  from 
the  social  order  its  obsolete  elements,  release  for  a  new 
evolution  the  elements  accumulated  by  the  progress  of 
events  and  of  manners,  to  the  free  development  of 
which  the  foregoing  system  formed  an  obstacle,  surviv- 
ing, by  the  organized  force  of  its  government,  of  its 
privileged  class,  the  conditions  which  had  created  it, 
and  which,  by  their  disappearance,  bring  about  its  fall. 
Assuredly,  the  further  we  proceed,  the  greater  will  be 
the  part  played  by  the  will  of  man  and  the  organized 
force  of  the  socialist  party  in  ulterior  determinations, 
but  on  the  condition  that  they  are  exactly  in  accord  with 
the  historical  development,  with  the  social  evolution 
which  it  will  find  it  easy  to  precipitate,  but  impossible  to 

1  Letter  to  M.  de  Seilhac.    (Revue  Bleue,  November  2, 1895.) 


THE  SOCIAL   QUESTION.  413 

oppose  or  allay.  As  to  the  time,  the  duration  of  the 
phases,  the  stages  to  be  traversed,  we  can  say  nothing." 
However  incomplete  and  imperfect  may  be  this  sketch 
of  the  conditions  under  which  socialism  is  developing 
in  France,  it  is  sufficient  to  establish  the  importance 
and  the  continuity  of  the  movement.  How  is  it  possi- 
ble to  imagine  that  such  a  movement  can  be  stopped, 
or  forced  back,  or  even  that  it  will  become  extinct  of 
itself  ?  Good  sense  tells  us  that  it  must  end  in  a  modi- 
fication of  the  social  state,  which,  however,  does  not 
imply  the  complete  disappearance  of  present  society,  or 
the  substitution  therefor  of  the  coUectivist  city.  The 
solutions  which  we  can  descry  are  three  in  number  : 
either  a  power  which  will  treat  with  capital  on  equal 
terms  will  be  formed  by  association ;  or  the  law  estab- 
lished by  the  delegates  of  the  greatest  number  will  in- 
tervene to  redress  the  wrongs  of  chance  and  of  heredity ; 
or,  lastly,  a  voluntary  understanding  will  be  effected, 
by  means  of  concessions  mutually  agreed  upon.  The 
tendency  to  syndicates  in  France  is  tolerably  large ;  of 
course,  it  cannot  be  compared  to  that  which,  in  Eng- 
land, settled  the  formation  of  the  trades-unions. ^  On 
July  1,  1893,  there  existed  4448  professional  associa- 
tions,2  637  more  than  in  1892.     In  the  space  of  one 

1  The  reader  will  remember  that,  in  the  beginning,  the  trades-unions 
were  treated  with  distrust  by  the  public  powers,  and  deprived  of  the 
guarantees  which  are  essential  to  the  existence  of  every  society.  A  series 
of  outrages  having  occurred,  which  alarmed  public  opinion,  a  grand  com- 
mittee of  inquiry  was  instituted,  which  proposed  the  system  of  absolute 
liberty.  Later  on,  the  trades-unions  became  "  one  of  the  recognized  bases 
of  social  peace  in  England." 

1893.  1892. 

Number.    Members.        Number.     Members. 

Syndicates  of  employers 1397        114,176  1212         102,649 

Syndicates  of  workingmen  192(5         402,125  1589         288,970 

Syndicates,  mixed 173  30,052  137  18,561 

Syndicates,  agricultural 952        352,883  863         313,800 


414  THE  EVOLUTION    OF  FRANCE. 

year  the  members  of  syndicates  had  increased  in  num- 
ber from  723,680  to  900,236,  or  an  augmentation  of 
176,156.1  In  1885  the  workingmen's  syndicates  num- 
bered 221 ;  now  there  are  1926  of  them.  In  1884  there 
were  20  unions.  Now  there  are  117  ;  ^  28  or  29  labor 
exchanges  centralize  the  action  of  about  400  syndi- 
cates. And  finally,  around  the  syndicates  are  grouped 
creations  of  all  sorts,  —  orphanages,  schools,  intelligence 
offices,  disputed  claims  offices,  bulletins,  and  reviews. 
But  the  effort  in  the  direction  of  mediation  is  small ; 
societies  for  consumable  commodities  rose,  between  1892 
and  1893,  only  from  38  to  43,  and  the  societies  of  pro- 
duction from  12  to  16.^  The  Frenchman  has  inveterate 
habits  of  individualism  ;  he  never  has  recourse  to  asso- 
ciation except  when  he  cannot  do  otherwise ;  he  has  no 
instinct  for  it.  When  an  institution  prospers  in  France, 
he  always  seeks  the  man  or  the  men  to  whom  its  guid- 
ance is  due.  The  idea  of  collective  and  anonymous 
force,  produced  by  a  superposition  of  individual  efforts, 
remains  foreign  to  him ;  he  has  to  reason  with  himself 
in  order  to  believe  in  it.  That  being  the  case,  it  seems 
very  difficult  for  the  association  of  workingmen  to  be- 
come sufficiently  powerful  in  France  to  thrust  itself  on 
the  public  powers  and  on  employers  in  a  decisive  and 
durable  manner. 

The  law  is  not  like  an  association  ;  it  does  not  have 
to  be  acclimatized.  The  Frenchman  is  accustomed  to 
respect   it   and   to   obey   it.     Let   a   radical    majority 

1  Report  of  the  Minister  of  Commerce  ou  the  development  of  profes- 
sional associations  during  the  year  1892-1893.  This  report  concerns  only 
the  associations  constituted  in  conformity  with  the  law  of  1884 ;  many  are 
not.    Consequently,  the  figures  are  very  small. 

2  Of  which  29  are  employers;  61  workingmen;  11  mixed;  16  agricult- 
ural. 

*  Le  Temps,  January  5, 1894. 


THE  SOCIAL  QUESTION.  415 

establish  a  really  progressive  tax,  one  which  shall  ac- 
tually limit  private  fortunes,  —  not  one  which  oppress- 
ing means  most  of  all  leaves  the  small  and  the  great 
face  to  face  with  each  other,  —  the  socialists  will  only 
have  to  perfect  the  tool  after  their  own  ideas  ;  and 
as  it  represents  a  doctrine  which  is  just  in  theory,  the 
progressive  tax  will  be  enacted  without  revolt.  If  it 
is  destined  to  ruin  the  country,  it  will  take  the  country 
some  time  to  find  it  out.  Moreover,  it  will  be  envel- 
oped in  a  complete  legal  network  calculated  to  restore 
the  equilibrium,  for  the  benefit  of  the  less  fortunate, 
of  the  less  intelligent,  and,  without  doubt,  also,  of  the 
less  laborious.  But  one  assertion  can  be  made  at  pres- 
ent, and  that  is,  that  the  law  tends  to  become  more 
and  more  minute,  and  more  and  more  provident;  it 
looks  after  everything,  tries  to  regulate  everything,  to 
penetrate  everything.  The  solution  of  the  social  ques- 
tion by  the  law  appears  to  be  the  most  probable  ;  it 
would,  also,  be  the  least  desirable. 

Conciliation  alone  remains  ;  at  the  point  which  the 
struggle  between  the  classes  has  reached,  whose  very 
existence  the  optimists  try  in  vain  to  deny,  the  hy- 
pothesis seems  ironical.  One  cannot  imagine  the  two 
parties  face  to  face,  signing  a  sudden  truce,  renouncing 
their  claims,  and  exchanging,  for  the  second  time,  a 
"kiss  of  flirtation."  Moreover,  if  the  well-to-do  class 
were  to  find  their  road  of  Damascus,  and  were  to  return 
to  the  notion  of  the  duties  which  are  consistent  with 
the  possession  of  fortune,  the  abyss  excavated  between 
it  and  the  laboring  class  would  not  be  filled  in,  never- 
theless. It  is  too  late  to  restore  what  Le  Play  calls 
bossism.  The  boss  is  no  longer  sufficiently  unques- 
tioned to  permit  of  his  offering  it  to  his  workmen,  nor 
sufficiently  powerful  to  force  it  upon  them.     Participa- 


416  THE  EVOLUTION  OF  FRANCE. 

tion  in  the  profits  is,  in  their  eyes,  only  ahns,  if  it  is 
not  a  charter  of  equality.  The  very  fine  enterprise  of 
lodgings  for  workingmen  ought,  in  order  to  succeed, 
to  constitute  a  remunerative  investment,  and  from  that 
moment  it  belies  its  object  of  social  upraising.  These 
things  are  only  expedients  of  real  value,  but  very  tran- 
sitory. Charity  is  an  avowal.  "  In  the  practice  of 
it,"  writes  Edouard  Rod,^  with  enthusiasm,  "there  lies 
a  confession  of  injustice  which  an  upright  spirit  can- 
not accept ;  is  it  not  criminal  hypocrisy  to  correct  the 
iniquity  of  fate  by  abandoning  the  minor  part  of  one's 
superfluity  ?  We  have  duties,  or  we  have  not.  If  we 
have  not,  let  us  drink,  eat,  and  enjoy  ourselves,  with 
our  eyes  shut  to  the  miseries  the  sight  of  which  would 
spoil  our  joys,  safely  entrenched  in  a  fortress  of  ego- 
tism. If  we  have  any,  let  us  not  think  that  we  fulfil 
them  by  a  partial  sacrifice  of  ourselves,  let  us  not  de- 
ceive our  conscience  by  half  concessions.  We  must  give 
ourselves  wholly,  —  our  pleasures,  our  hearts,  and  our 
goods.  .  .  .  Give  everything  to  the  poor,  and  follow 
me.  One  can  only  obey  or  disobey  the  stern  com- 
mand ;  if  one  does  not  do  all,  he  has  done  nothing." 
Even  understood  in  this  sublime  fashion,  and  prac- 
tised with  equal  strictness,  charity  would  solve  noth- 
ing. What  is  needed  is,  to  find  the  "formula  which 
might  be  substituted  for  ancient  injustices,  without 
relying  upon  fresh  injustices,"  ^  and,  having  found  it, 
to  apply  it  by  common  consent.  What  is  needed  is  a 
second  night  of  August  -4,  less  tardy  and  more  precise. 
But  the  well-to-do  class  does  not  yet  know  whether  it 
is  necessary  "  to  combine  resistances,  or  to  argue  about 
concessions."^ 

1  ^doaard  Rod,  ie  Sens  de  la  Vie. 

2  F.  Magnard  {Le  Figaro,  March  20,  1893) .         » Ibid. 


THE  SOCIAL   QUESTION.  417 

The  hour  for  learning  this  is  about  to  sound.  The  new 
generation  is  aware  of  it ;  it  foresees  in  its  march  that 
it  is  approaching  a  peak ;  thence  it  will  obtain  a  view 
of  the  vast  territories  which  constitute  the  twentieth 
century.  The  dawn  is  very  pale.  It  knows  not 
whether  the  day  which  is  coming  is  to  be  a  cold  win- 
ter's morning,  or  a  spring  noon-day.  But  it  is  reso- 
lute ;  its  step  remains  firm  ;  it  does  not  allow  its  gaze 
to  wander  backward  over  the  valleys  which  have  dis- 
appeared. 

And  the  spirit  of  France  is  with  it. 

2  E 


INDEX. 


Abd-ul  Azis  dies,  9i. 

Acadie,  166. 

Adam,  Mme.,  81. 

Africa,  French,  173. 

African  rivers,  commerce  on,  153. 

Alen^on,  Due  d',  140. 

Alexander  II.,  102;  III.,  81,  346. 

Alexandria,  massacre  and  bombard- 
ment, 125,  126. 

Algeria,  108,  114 ;  errors  in,  121,  194. 

Allain-Targe',  M.,  133,  136, 144,  199. 

Allemane,  Jean,  410,  411. 

Alphonso  XII.,  insulted  in  Paris,  146. 

Alsace-Lorraine,  86,  145. 

Amagat,  M.,  117. 

Ambassadors,  82. 

America,  French  in,  164  seq. 

American  politician,  257. 

Anarchism,  402  seq.;  outrages,  253, 
269. 

Andrassy,  Count,  91,  93,  96,  98. 

Anuam,  182,  184,  186. 

Arabi  Pasha,  rises  to  head  of  a 
party,  123 ;  popularity  increases, 
124;  sham  plot,  124;  bombarded 
in  Alexandria,  126 ;  routed  at  Tel- 
el-Kebir,  captured,  and  sentenced, 
128. 

Arago,  Emmanuel,  4,  12. 

Arago,  Etienne,  5. 

Arbitration,  32. 

Army,  crisis  over  changes  in,  76; 
346  seq. ;  and  the  Republic,  348, 
356;  politics  and  the,  357,  358;  a 
new,  359;  service  in  the,  and  the 
middle  classes,  360 ;  and  the  lower 
classes,  360 ;  oflScers  in  the,  361 ; 
watchfulness  in  the,  363;  and 
taxes,  364 ;  and  socialism,  364, 366. 

Arnim,  Count  d',  86. 


Arnold,  Matthew,  315. 

Asia,  French,  189. 

Assembly,  Constituent,  summoned, 
10 ;  dissolved,  52. 

Audiffret-Pasquier,  Due  d',  24,  30, 
48;   chairman  of  Senate,  61. 

Aumale,  Due  d',  deputy,  23 ;  38 ;  epi- 
grammatic remark,  41;  retired, 
140;  210,235. 

Aurellede  Paladines,  d',  deputy,  14. 

Austria,  80,  81,  82,  93 ;  occupies  Bos- 
nia and  Herzegovina,  99;  114. 

Balkan  insurrection,  93,  94. 

Bardoux,  M.,  73,  74,  76. 

Barodet,  33,  115,  152. 

Basilica  of  Montmartre,  66. 

Batbie,  M.,  31,  37. 

Bazaine,  Marshal,  41. 

Beaconsfield,  Lord.    See  Disraeli. 

Belcastel,  M.  de,  66. 

Belgium,  90,  194. 

Be'renger,  enters  Council,  35,  72. 

Berlin,  Congress  of,  96. 

Bert,  Paul,  133,  284. 

Beule',  M.,  37,  66. 

Bey  of  Tunis,  107  seq. 

Billing,  M.  de,  119. 

Births  and  deaths,  384  seq. 

Bishops,  274  seq.;  oppose  the  Pope, 
298,  300. 

Bismarck,  Prince,  7 ;  forges  tele- 
gram, 8;  prevents  gathering  of 
Assembly,  10 ;  increases  disorgan- 
ization of  France,  20 ;  tries  to  pre- 
vent Jules  Favre's  appearance  at 
London  Conference,  85 ;  hopes  to 
make  France  a  secondary  power, 
86 ;  the  brutality  of  his  policy,  86 ; 
correspondence  with  Count  d'Ar- 


419 


420 


INDEX. 


nim,  8G;  cannot  conceive  of  a 
rational  republic,  88 ;  his  attitude 
increasingly  belligerent,  88;  his 
efforts  to  precipitate  another  war, 
88  seq.;  his  "nerves,"  90;  is 
checked,  and  feigns  astonishment, 
93;  abandons  Russia,  96;  at  Con- 
gress of  Berlin,  96;  establishes 
universal  suffrage,  101 ;  his  watch- 
word as  to  Egypt,  128 ;  smiles  upon 
France,  145, 153;  becomes  colonial, 
153 ;  214,  215  ;  his  error,  364,  369. 

Blanc,  Louis,  48,  115. 

Blanche,  Alfred,  4. 

Blanquists,  410,  412. 

Bocher,  M.,  47. 

Bonaparte,  121,  272,  324,  334. 

Bonapartists,  electoral  successes,  41 ; 
49;  50. 

Bordeaux,  Assembly  of,  15 ;  compact, 
32. 

Borel,  General,  74,  76. 

Boulanger,  General,  207, 214-217, 22^- 
238. 

Boulangists,  254. 

Bourbons,  3;  reconciliation  of 
branches,  37;  restoration  made 
impossible,  39. 

Bourgeois,  M.,  240,  262. 

Bourget,  Paul,  379. 

Brame,  2. 

Brazza,  M.  de,  175. 

Briere  de  I'Isle,  155, 185,  206. 

Brissac,  Henri,  199. 

Brisson,  Henri,  198,  221. 

Broglie,  Due  de,  leads  against  Thiers, 
35 ;  enters  Council,  37 ;  43,  48,  66 ; 
forms  Cabinet,  68;  85,  105,  114, 
296. 

Brousse,  Paul,  410,  411. 

Brunei,  M.,  68. 

Budget,  of  1887,  211;  of  1888,  223. 

Buffet,  M.,  47;  his  nervous  policj', 
50;   defeated,  50,  52. 

Burdeau,  M.,  255,  260,  266. 

Burgoing,  M.,  41,  49. 

Burmah,  188. 

Caesarism,  291. 

Caillaux,  M.,  47. 

Campau,  Mme.,  334. 

Campenon,  General,  147,  154, 198. 


Canada,  168. 

Canrobert,  Marshal,  74,  148. 

Capitalists,  262. 

Caruot,  M.  Sadi-,  198,  199,  207,  211 ; 
elected  President,  221 ;  226 ;  opens 
Universal  Exposition,  230;  255; 
assassination  of,  270 ;  his  character 
and  services,  270;  359. 

Carolina,  163. 

Casimir-Perier,  pere  et  fils,  a  real 
Republic,  31 ;  35,  44 ;  133,  234,  260, 
265,  268,  285. 

Cassagnac,  M.  de,  204. 

CasteUane,  M.  de,  46. 

Centre,  meaning  of  the  term,  46. 

Challemel-Lacour,  M.,  his  speech  on 
the  Triple  Alliance,  106 ;  139,  145, 
261. 

Chamber  of  Deputies,  election  to, 
51,  115 ;  renewed  every  four  years, 
57 ;  meets,  61 ;  prorogued  by 
President  MacMahon,  69;  elec- 
tions, 72,  204;  its  position  in  re- 
gard to  Tunisian  matters,  113 ;  its 
laughter  as  to  Tunis,  116;  suffers 
in  contrast  with  British  Parlia- 
ment, 156, 157 ;  poor  fitness  of,  for 
colonial  expansion,  171;  disorder 
in,  255 ;  bomb  explodes  in  hall  of, 
269. 

Chambord,  Comte  de,  issues  mani- 
festo, 23;  is  reconciled  to  Comte 
de  Paris,  38 ;  adopts  white  flag,  39 ; 
his  wise  views,  40 ;  death,  40 ;  84. 

Champlain,  164. 

Changarnier,  General,  deputy,  14. 

Chantilly,  210. 

Chanzy,  General,  Army  of  the  Loire. 
23;  30. 

Chartres,  Due  de,  140,  210. 

Chateauvillain,  213. 

Chauvinism,  3.55. 

Cherif  Pasha,  123. 

Chesnelong,  M.  de,  39,  295. 

Chevreau,  Henri,  2. 

China,  France  at  war  with,  148, 165, 
180-186 ;  loses  Annam  and  Tonkin, 
186 ;  the  door  of,  189 ;  194. 

Christians  massacred,  94. 

Christophe,  M.,  52. 

Church  and  State,  285. 

Cissey,  General  de,  43,  47,  48,  52, 


INDEX. 


421 


Clemenceau,  M.,  43,  63, 114, 115,  117,  | 
154,  204  seg.,  257;  gets  his  vrages,  | 
259,  2G6. 

Clergy,  maintains  reserve,  in  New 
Catholicism  agitation,  66. 

Clericalism,  a  misnomer,  66;  Gam- 
betta  opposes  it,  67 ;  defined,  273 ; 
its  work  and  methods,  272  seq. 

Colonial  empires  of  France,  first  and 
second,  162-169. 

Colonial  policy  of  France,  as  to 
Tunis,  107 ;  contradiction  between 
continental  and,  113. 

Colonies,  from  1365  to  1628, 163 seq.; 
in  America,  164  seq. ;  in  India,  166 
seq.;  poor  financial  showing  of, 
173 ;  in  Africa,  173 ;  empire  form- 
ing there,  174;  in  Madagascar,  a 
great  acquisition,  180;  in  Asia, 
180-186 ;  too  many  official  changes 
in,  191 ;  parochial  spirit  and  jeal- 
ousy in  France  regarding,  192 ;  the 
evils  regarding  the,  and  the  reme- 
dies, 195-197 ;  205 ;  250. 

Colonists  and  explorers,  French,  163 

Commerce  of  France,  194. 

Commercial  treaties,  247  seq. 

Commune,  germ  of,  4;  established, 
17 ;  described,  21;  a  second,  feared, 
103. 

Concordat,  67,  272,  285,  298,  301, 
306. 

Condominium,  123,  128. 

Congress  of  Berlin,  96 ;  a  real  profit 
from,  97. 

Conrad,  Admiral,  126. 

Constans,  M.,  234,  255,  265,  284. 

Constantinople  conference,  125. 

Constitutions,  ten  in  number,  53  seq. 

Constitution  of  Third  French  Repub- 
lic, birth,  45  seq. ;  amendments,  31, 
45;  described,  56  seq.;  composed 
of  three  constitutional  laws,  57; 
refutes  its  critics  by  success,  60; 
a  stable  form  of  government,  61 ; 
proposed  revision,  132. 

Consular  reforms,  104. 

Corti,  Count,  126. 

Courbet,  Admiral,  152,  157,  184,  185. 

Courcy,  General  de,  191. 

Cremieux,  4, 10,  12. 


Crime  and  education,  316,  317. 
Cronstadt,  245,  246. 
Cyprus,  98. 

Daudet,  Alphonse,  379. 

David,  Jerome,  2. 

Debates,  publicity  of,  conceded,  55. 

Debt  of   France,    rises   to    twenty 

milliards,  22 ;  five  milliards  raised 

to  reduce  it,  22;    second  loan  a 

perfect  success,  23 ;  war  levy  fully 

paid,  37;  212. 
Decazes,  Due,  14,  43,  47,  48,  51,  52, 

88,  89-91,  103,  204;  his  efforts  to 

save  France,  93. 
Decentralization,  movement  in  favor 

of,  20 ;  Le  Play's  work,  21 ;  197. 
De  Giers,  M.,  153. 
Delafosse,  M.,  114, 125, 155, 167. 
Delescluse,  4. 
Depeyre,  41. 

De'roulede,  M.,  220,  224,  269. 
Dervish  Pasha,  125. 
Deves,  M.,  133. 
Diplomacy,   the   Republic   made   a 

new,  suited  to  its  needs,  83;  ef- 

facement,   103;    reform,  104;   the 

French     and     English    "agent" 

compared,  109. 
Discount  Bank,  236. 
Disraeli,  Mr.,  91,  92,  96, 101. 
District   elections,  its  nature,  201; 

236. 
Divorce,  law  of,  151. 
Don  Carlos,  89. 
Duclerc,  M.,  129,  136,  137. 
Dufaure,  M.,  first  president  of  the 

Council,  43;  47,  48,  51;   head  of 

cabinet,    52;    72;   forms   another 

ministry,  73. 
Dufferin,  Lord,  126,  128, 
Dumont,  Albert,  337. 
Dupanloup,    Monseigneur,     resigns 

from  the  Academy,  23 ;  273. 
Duperre,  Admiral,  294. 
Duprat,  Pascal,  104. 
Dupre,  Admiral,  182. 
Dupuy,  Charles,  263,  266;  coolness, 

269. 
Duruy,  M.,  327,  336. 
Duvernois,  Clement,  2. 


422 


INDEX. 


Eastern  Question,  95  seq. 

Economic  revolution,  247  seq. 

Education,  66;  75;  Jules  Ferry's 
work  as  Minister  of,  139, 159;  141 ; 
and  Catholic  Church,  276-283,  301 ; 
in  the  Third  Republic,  308  seq.; 
primary,  308;  secularization  of, 
309  seq. ;  number  of  primary 
schools,  secular  and  otherwise, 
311;  free  schools,  312;  poor  teach- 
ers, 313,  314;  politico-religious 
controversy,  315 :  crime  and,  316 ; 
teaching  about  God,  317;  apathy 
after  school  life,  319;  higher  pri- 
mary, 319 ;  professional  or  techni- 
cal, 322 ;  societies  for,  323 ;  secon- 
dary, 323  seq.;  Napoleon  and, 
324;  onesidedness  of,  in  pres- 
ent-day France,  325;  desire  to 
"break"  by,  324,  326;  charac- 
ter of  the  professors,  326 ;  Duruy's 
work  in,  327;  programmes,  327 
seq. ;  classical  studies,  328 ;  at- 
tempts at  reform  in,  328,  329; 
overdriving  and  physical  exercises, 
330 ;  failure  in  schools  to  produce 
character,  331 ;  state  and  ecclesi- 
astical schools,  332 ;  secondary,  for 
girls,  333-335 ;  university,  335-345 ; 
students  and  solidarity,  336;  new 
departure  in  university,  337  seq.; 
General  Council  of,  created,  339; 
progress  in  university,  341. 

Egypt,  the  connection  of  France 
with,  121 ;  and  Bonaparte,  121 ;  the 
two  policies  of  France  in,  clash, 
122;  foreign  superintendence  es- 
tablishment, 122 ;  Suez  Canal,  122, 
126  seq.;  Arabi  Pasha,  123  seq.; 
France  and  England  send  fleets  to, 
124 ;  massacre  at  Alexandria,  125 ; 
Alexandria  bombarded,  126 ;  Glad- 
stone calls  conference,  130. 

Egyptian  debt,  122. 

Eififel  Tower,  230,  231. 

Empress  Frederick,  242,  243. 

England,  80,  81,  84;  threatens  to 
occupy  Dardanelles,  96;  Egypt  and 
Cyprus,  98;  affairs  in,  101;  and 
Tunis,  109  seq.;  how  she  treats 
her  agents,  109 ;  joint  action  with 
France  in  Egypt,  123;  bombards 


Alexandria,  126;  declares  her  in- 
tention to  remain  in  Egypt,  126; 
accused  of  treachery,  127;  state- 
ments as  to  policy,  129;  pretexts 
to  remain  in,  129;  in  Burmah,  188; 
194 ;  and  the  Republic,  244 ;  wel- 
comes French  fleet,  245 ;  crime  in, 
316;  education  in,  326;  inheri- 
tance in,  388. 

:^pe'e,  de  1',  21. 

Ernoul,  M.,  22,  37. 

Europe,  dismayed  at  Russo-Turkish 
War,  95;  apathetic,  128,  130;  its 
peace  threatened,  147;  her  eye  on 
France,  152 ;  launching  out  in  for- 
eign conquest,  170 ;  dark  days  in, 
206. 

Exposition,  Universal,  at  Paris,  73, 
78,  102 ;  its  good  effect,  228  seq. 

Extreme  Right,  63. 

Extreme  Left,  114,  116, 137,  146, 164, 
200,  216. 

Faidherbe,  General,  173. 

Faith  and  Science,  304,  305. 

Fallieres,  M.,  137,  240,  285. 

Family,  the  French,  381  seq. ;  its 
strength  and  stability,  382;  and 
woman,  383. 

Farre,  General,  111,  114. 

Fatherland,  France  and,  350  seq. 

Faure,  Fe'lix,  120,  223,  260. 

Favre,  Jules,  offers  proposition  of 
dethronement,  3 ;  member  of  Gov- 
ernment of  National  Defence,  4 ;  5; 
has  interview  with  Bismarck,  10; 
swept  from  power,  12;  victim  of 
calumny,  13 ;  deputy,  14 ;  calls  for 
stability  of  government,  59 ;  84. 

Ferry,  Jules,  member  of  Government 
of  National  Defence,  4 ;  falls,  12 ; 
reappears  in  public  life,  12;  de- 
scribes Commune,  21;  44;  speeches, 
49,  59 ;  62,  65,  81 ;  his  government 
assailed,  116, 117 ;  resigns  his  min- 
istry, 118 ;  121, 130 ;  his  second  Cab- 
inet, 138  seq.;  misunderstood,  138 
seq.;  retires  the  Princes,  140;  his 
basis  of  action,  140;  an  anti-cler- 
ical, 141 ;  his  Cabinet  triumphs, 
144;  at  war  with  radicals,  147; 
successful   as  to  colonial  policy. 


INDEX. 


423 


148 ;  defends  liberty  of  work,  149 ; 
passes  important  laws,  149;  con- 
cludes treaty  of  Tien-Tsin,  150; 
his  revision  of  the  Constitution, 
150 ;  scenes  at  the  revision  confer- 
ence, 150;  his  power  over  men, 
151;  his  battle  becomes  harder, 
153;  procures  general  elections 
law,  155 ;  falls,  157 ;  his  policy  con- 
tinued by  his  successor,  157;  his 
character,  sufferings,  and  work, 
157  seq. ;  brings  about  peace  with 
China,  158 ;  attempted  murder  of, 
159,  221 ;  honor  at  last,  and  death, 
159;  on  colonial  expansion,  170; 
on  the  protectorate,  190, 198,  220, 
221, 261 ;  on  education,  276-282, 284. 

Finance,  211  seq. 

Financial  problems,  141. 

Flag,  the  tricolor,  17,  39 ;  the  lilies, 
39. 

Floquet,  M.,  43,  221,  225,  227,  260. 

Flourens,  M.,  214  seq. 

Foreign  policy  of  France,  79  seq. 

Fou-Tcheou,  152,  185. 

Fournichon,  Admiral,  10,  52. 

Fourtou,  de,  43,  68,  71. 

France,  lacks  first  condition  of  a 
free  State,  19 ;  debt  of,  increases  to 
twenty  milliards,  22;  loans  sub- 
scribed to  wipe  out  debt,  23 ;  com- 
pared with  other  countries  as  to 
foreign  representatives,  82 ;  main- 
tains her  rank  as  a  power  in  spite 
of  Bismarck's  policy,  85,  86 ;  its 
honor  and  dignity,  89;  "making 
an  end  of,"  92;  strictly  neutral  in 
Russo-Turkishwar,95 ;  disappoints 
the  Hellenes,  99,  100;  situation 
in,  after  Congress  of  Berlin,  102 ; 
Europe  distrusts,  103  seq. ;  joins 
Triple  Alliance,  105 ;  her  position 
stated,  105;  opposes  Turkey  in 
Tunis,  108 :  establishes  protecto- 
rate in  Tunis,  121 ;  interferes  in 
Egypt,  121  seq. ;  joint-action  with 
England  in  Egypt,  123  seq. ;  sends 
fleet  to  Egypt,  124;  fleet  with- 
drawn, 126 ;  wakes  up  as  to  Egypt,  j 
127 ;  claims  liberty  to  act  there,  [ 
129 ;  loses  prestige,  130 ;  negatives  j 
English    agreement    with   Porte,  i 


130 ;  in  political  disorder,  135  seq. ; 
attacked  by  German  press,  145 ;  at 
war,  without  consent  of  Parlia- 
ment, 152;  easier  relations  with 
Germany,  153 ;  colonies  and  colo- 
nists of,  162  seq. ;  in  rivalry  with 
England  in  the  New  "World,  165 
seq. ;  in  Hindustan,  165  seq. ;  lack 
of  good  colonists  and  officials  in, 
171;  is  forming  an  empire  in 
Africa,  174;  more  patriotic  than 
commercial,  177 ;  secures  Annam 
and  Tonkin,  186;  commerce  of, 
194;  paucity  of  freight  steamers 
of,  195 ;  men  of,  dilatory,  195 ;  tur- 
moil in,  after  the  fall  of  Ferry 
Cabinet,  198;  in  the  power  of  the 
radicals,  222  seq. ;  finds  that  it  has 
students,  232;  takes  her  place  in 
Europe  again,  246 ;  in  trouble  with 
scandals,  256-264 ;  demands  excuse 
from  Switzerland,  258 ;  neutral  in 
religion,  285;  the  best  field  for 
new  plans  of  the  Church,  292 ;  su- 
perficiality in,  321 ;  university  of, 
323 ;  the  governing  classes  of,  and 
the  war  of  1870,  324,  325 ;  second- 
ary scholars  in,  332;  students  in, 
336,  341 ;  unites  all  parties  on  the 
army,  348;  and  fatherland,  350 
seq. ;  and  patriotism,  354  seq. ;  in 
armed  peace,  359 ;  its  organization 
unique,  365;  and  socialism,  366, 
394 ;  incessantly  agitated,  368 ;  de- 
cried, 368;  a  dual,  369;  a  country 
of  literary  form,  370;  oblivious  of 
the  new  science,  375;  Taine  and 
Renan  in  literature  of,  375  seq.; 
pornographic  literature,  379  seq. ; 
cures  the  evil,  381;  the  family  in, 
381 ;  woman  in,  383 ;  decrease  of 
population  in,  384-390 ;  inheritance 
in,  38();  birth-rate  and  house-rent, 
389;  division  of  occupations  in, 
407  ;  people  of,  individualistic,  414. 

France,  New,  164  seq. 

Franchise,  electoral,  57. 

Francis  Joseph,  Emperor,  98. 

Frederick  III.,  226-228. 

French  Congo, 174-176. 

French  empire  in  Africa,  a,  174. 

French  slowness,  195. 


424 


INDEX. 


Frenchwoman,  the,  383. 

Freycinet,  M.  de,  elected  as  first  sen- 
ator for  Paris,  51 ;  enters  Cabinet, 
73 ;  the  plan  which  bears  his  name, 
74,  143 ;  97 ;  reforms  of,  104 ;  123, 
125;  his  Cabinet  resigns,  127, 136; 
198 ;  forms  Cabinet,  207 ;  falls,  213 ; 
221,225;  Cabinet  again,  240,  241; 
falls,  252;  260. 

Functionaries,  dismissal  demanded, 
75 ;  and  Marshal  MacMahon,  76. 

Gambetta,  Leon,  member  of  Gov- 
ernment of  National  Defence,  4 ; 
leaves  Paris  for  Tours  by  balloon 
during  siege,  10;  organizes  de- 
fence, 10 ;  retires,  out  of  spite,  13 ; 
makes  tour  of  France,  25 :  cen- 
sured by  Assembly,  31 ;  second 
founder  of  the  Republic,  47;  49; 
active  in  the  work  of  the  elec- 
tions, and  his  ideas  triumphant, 
61 ;  elected  four  times,  51 ;  charac- 
terizes the  Commune,  63;  64;  is 
violent  in  the  Chamber,  67 ;  war- 
cry  against  clericalism,  75 ;  leaves 
ministry,  76 ;  advises  English  alli- 
ance, 81;  "clean  hands,"  97;  on 
his  defence,  104;  real  head  of 
State,  105;  patriotism,  118,  133; 
made  Prime  Minister,  121, 123, 133 ; 
falls,  124, 133;  125;  the  people  rest 
on  him,  131 ;  but  at  last  reject  him, 
133;  his  death,  134;  E.  de  Pres- 
sense'  on,  134;  137,  309,  357,  392. 

Garibaldi,  32. 

Gamier,  Lieutenant,  182. 

Gamier-Pages,  4,  12. 

Gavard,  Charles,  92. 

General  Councils,  reorganized,  22: 
elections  to,  24;  composition  of, 
144. 

General  elections,  200;  its  nature. 
201. 

Germany,  81,  82;  abandons  Russia. 
96,  114 ;  press  of,  attacks  France, 
145.  194. 

Gladstone,  Mr.,  101,  130. 

Glais-Bizoin,  4,  12. 

Goblet,  M.,  198,  199,  207,  214,  215, 
225,  265,  396. 

God,  name  of,  284. 


Grontaut,  Vicomte  de,  91,  92. 

Gordon,  General,  130. 

Gortchakoff,  Prince,  7,  85,  91,  94;  at 
Congress  of  Berlin,  96. 

Goulard,  M.  de,  43. 

Gouthe-Soulard,  Monseigneur,  298. 

Government  of  National  Defence 
formed,  4;  an  introduction  to  the 
Republic,  11. 

Government,  changed  without  fric- 
tion for  first  time  since  Louis 
XVIII.,  36;  transformed  eleven 
times  since  1789,  53;  parliamen- 
tary form  contrasted  with  others, 
56;  harmony  between  Chambers 
and  President,  61;  crisis  of  16th 
of  May  essentially  religious,  65; 
return  to  safe  path,  74 ;  beginning 
of  third  presidency  sees  govern- 
ment stronger,  77;  a  defect  in, 
104;  impersonal,  not  familiar  to 
France,  131;  the  theory  of,  135; 
form  of,  definitely  settled,  150; 
Jules  Ferry  on  parliamentary, 
159. 

Grandperret,  2. 

Grant,  General,  congratulates  Em- 
peror William,  7. 

Granville,  Lord,  85. 

Greece,  213. 

Greeks,  98-100. 

Gresley,  General,  76,  97. 

Grevy,  President  of  the  Assembly, 
27 ;  a  safe  man,  60 ;  President  of 
the  Chamber  of  Deputies,  61 ;  62 ; 
elected  third  President  of  the  Re- 
public, 77;  his  humble  birth,  77; 
apologizes  to  Alphonso  XII.,  146; 
152;  re-elected,  207;  family  dis- 
grace, 219 ;  resigns,  220 ;  his  char- 
acter and  work,  222 ;  on  the 
Church  and  the  Republic,  293. 
;  Guesde,  Jules,  409,  411. 
I  Guizot,  M.,  on  Turkey  and  Tunis, 
108. 

Harcourt,  Marquis  de,  77. 

Hartington,  Lord,  92. 

Hartmann,  103. 
1  Herz,  Dr.  Cornelius,  257. 
I  Hicks,  Pasha,  129. 
I  Hohenlohe,  Prince,  91. 


INDEX. 


425 


Holy  See,  83,  91,  275. 
Hugo,  Victor,  his  low  rank  as  sena- 
tor, 51. 

Ideas,  and  habits,  connection  be- 
tween, 367;  and  life,  at  variance 
in  France,  369;  gangrened,  371; 
and  words,  373. 

Impeachment  demanded  by  Left,  75. 

India,  French  in,  166  seq.,  194. 

Indian  army  at  Suez,  127. 

Inheritance,  law  of,  386. 

Internationale,  19. 

Interpellation  established,  55. 

Investment  of  Paris,  10. 

Ireland,  Archbishop,  289,  292. 

Italy,  steps  against,  by  the  clericals, 
67 ;  80,88,90 ;  accepts  memorandum 
of  Berlin,  94 :  threatens  France,  98; 
102,  103 ;  and  Tunis,  110,  117 ;  194 ; 
anti-French  rage  in,  298. 

Jarnac,  Count  de,  90,  91. 

Jaures,  Admiral,  77. 

Jaurfes,  M.,  396. 

Jaureguiberry,  Admiral,  97, 136, 137. 

Joinville,  Prince  de,  elected  deputy, 

23;  38. 
JoUiet,  Louis,  165. 

Kairwan,  115,  116. 

Kalnoky,  Count,  153. 

Kerdrel,  M.  de,  opposes  Thiers,  31. 

Khartoum,  130,  157. 

Khedive  Ismail,  122. 

"  King's  equipages,"  38. 

Kulturkampf ,  the,  90. 

Labor.    See  Socialism. 

Laboulaye,  M.  de,  his  constitutional 

amendment,  45;  48,  72. 
Lacombe,  M.  de,  43. 
Lacordaire,  288. 
Lamennais,  288. 
Laprade,  de,  deputy,  14. 
Larcy,  de,  43. 

La  R<mciere-Le  Noury,  Admiral,  80. 
La  Salle,  16.".. 
Lavergue,  M.  de, 48. 
Lavigerie,  Cardinal,  190,  274,  294. 
Lavisse,  M.,  338. 
League  of  Patriots,  2.34. 
Lecomte,  General,  murdered,  17. 


Le  Flo,  General,  his  witty  remark, 
26;  77,91,92. 

Left,  the,  22,  31,  32,  34,  36 ;  meaning 
of  the  term,  46 ;  59,  64 ;  makes  ex- 
treme demands,  75 ;  205,  284. 

Left  Centre,  meaning  of  the  term, 
46;  203. 

Legion  of  Honor,  218. 

Legitimists,  41 ;  ousted,  51. 

Leo  XIII. ,  becomes  Pope,  74 ;  101, 102, 
252,  261,  286,  291,  296,  297, 299-302, 
306,  405. 

Lepere,  97. 

Le  Play,  386. 

Le  Royer,  97,  260,  261. 

Lesseps,  Charles  de,  257,  262. 

Lesseps,  F.  de,  127. 

Liard,  M.,  338,  339. 

Liberia,  175. 

Liberty  of  speech,  288. 

L'Intransigeant,  118, 119,  217. 

Literature,  writers,  not  thinkers,  370 ; 
great  sentiments  and  petty  pas- 
sions, 370 ;  immorality,  371 ;  under 
the  Second  Empire,  371 ;  the  study 
of  the  human  "soul,"  372;  exag- 
geration in,  373;  the  scientific 
method,  374;  the  new  Grail,  375; 
Taine's  influence  in,  376;  Kenan's 
work  in,  377  seq. ;  descent  of,  and 
efforts  to  raise  it,  378  seq. ;  porno- 
graphic, 379  seq. 

Littre,  elected  to  the  Academy,  23. 

Local  liberties,  20;  Gambetta  and, 
133. 

Lockroy,  M.,  33,  202. 

London  conference,  84  seq. 

Loubet,  M.,  252;  falls,  256;  260. 

Louisiana,  165  seq. 

Louis  Philippe,  108. 

Lyceum,  325. 

Lycurgus,  391. 

Maccio,  M.,  111. 

Macedonia,  99. 

MacMahon,  Marshal,  elected  Presi- 
dent of  the  Republic,  30 ;  his  efforts 
to  ensure  stability  of  government, 
42  seq.;  unconstitutional  letter,  50 ; 
60 ;  his  supposed  idea,  65 ;  pro- 
rogues Chambers  on  the  16th  of 
May,  68  seq.;    the  result  of  re- 


426 


INDEX. 


ligious  influence  and  a  violation 
of  the  constitution,  70;  coup  d'etat 
aimed  at  ideas  and  doctrines,  71 ; 
allows  scandalous  candidacy,  72; 
his  party  defeated,  73;  breaks 
from  his  advisers,  73 ;  ends  crisis, 
74;  refuses  to  remove  or  change 
army  officers,  76;  resigns  the 
Presidency,  77  ;  greets  his  succes- 
sor, 77 ;  remarks  on  his  character, 
78 ;  funeral,  2(>8. 

Madagascar,  152, 165,  168, 177. 

Magnac,  M.,  37. 

Magne,  2,  43. 

Mahdi,  the,  129. 

Malet,  Sir  Edward,  123  seq. 

Malthusianism,  389. 

Marcere,  M.,  52,  73,  97. 

Marion,  H.,  331. 

Marquette,  Pere,  165. 

"  Marseillaise,"  294. 

Martignac,  de,  20. 

Martin,  Henri,  50. 

Martin-Feuille'e,  M.,  139,  141,  285. 

Marx,  Karl,  297,  409,  411. 

Massacres,  in  Bulgaria,  W ;  at  Alex- 
andria, 125. 

Maupassant,  Guy  de,  378. 

May  16,  1879,  crisis  of,  65,  68,  273, 
274. 

Mazade,  M.  de,  declares  perpetual 
moral  war  with  Germany,  8;  re- 
marks on  constitution,  59;  on 
Chamber,  62 ;  on  prorogation,  72. 

Meaux,  de,  47,  52,  68. 

Meliue,  M.,  247,  249. 

Memorandum  of  Berlin,  94. 

Mesnil,  M.  du,  337. 

Metz,  surrender  of,  9. 

Michel,  Ernest,  on  French  slowness, 
195. 

Military  spirit  in  democracies,  347. 

Milliere,  4. 

Ministerial  crises  a  safety-valve, 
60. 

Ministerial  responsibility  estab- 
lished, 55. 

Ministers,  number  not  fixed,  58;  a 
safety-anchor,  60;  office  more  po- 
litical than  ministerial,  61 ;  shift- 
ings  of,  252. 

Ministers  first  sit  in  legislature,  55. 


Ministry,  demand  for  a  stable,  138; 

stable   ministry  at   last   secured, 

240. 
Miribel,  General,  358. 
Montaigne,  Admiral,  47. 
Montalembert,  287,  288. 
Montceau-les-Mines,  137. 
Mortemart,  14. 
Mourad  V.,  94. 
Mun,  M.  de,  295,  296. 
Municipal  Council  of  Paris,  103, 150, 

218. 
Municipal,  franchise,  44;  law,  149. 
Munster,  Count  de,  90. 
Musset,  Alfred  de,  371. 

Nancy,  Programme  of,  21. 

Napoleon  I.    See  Bonaparte. 

Napoleon  III.,  3;  letter  to  Rouher, 
20;  179. 

Napoleon,  ^Prince,  invited  to  leave 
France,  25 ;  31 ;  publishes  mani- 
festo, 137,  140. 

Naquet,  M.,  49, 117. 

National  education,  and  clericalism, 
66;  free,  demanded,  75. 

Navy,  346  seq. ;  sailors  of,  at  Cron- 
stadt,  346.    See,  also,  Army. 

Nemours,  Due  de,  38. 

New  Catholicism,  the,  65. 

Noailles,  Marquis  de,  uses  word 
"Republic,"  43. 

Note  of  July  15, 126. 

Nubar  Pasha,  123. 

Orloff,  Prince,  86,  103. 
Osman  Pasha,  95. 
Ottoman  inertia,  93. 

Palikao,  General,  2. 
Panama  scandal,  256-263,  266. 
Paris,  besieged  and  taken,  18 ;  mob 

at,  insults  Alphonso  XII.,  146. 
Paris,   Comte  de,  is  reconciled    to 

Comte  de  Chambord,  38 ;  218. 
"  Parisian  barometer,"  the,  33,  34. 
Party  hatred,  18(5. 
"  Party  platform,"  57. 
Patriotism,  354  seq. 
Peasants,  and  the  Church,  286;  and 

the  school,  319;  389,  407,  408. 
Pelletan,  4.  • 


^^n 


INDEX. 


427 


Persia,  Shah  of,  37. 
Picard,  Ernest,  4, 12,  22. 
Pius  IX.,  65,  89,  90,  288,  291. 
Plevna,  95. 

Pope,  spiritual  power  of ,  83,  89 ;  tem- 
poral power  of,  24,  66,  83. 
Popular  indignation  and  the  Repub- 
lic, 3. 
Population,  384-390. 
Porte,    protests    against   action    in 
Egypt,  124;  sends  commission  to 
Egypt,  125. 
Pothuau,  Admiral,  73.  [150 

Prayers  in  Chamber  discontinued. 
Presidency,    established,    24;    term 
fixed    at    seven    years,    42,    58; 
powers  and  privileges,  58;  crisis, 
76;  202. 
President  of  the  Republic,  title  con- 
ferred upon  M.  Thiers,  24;    Mac- 
Mahon  elected,  36;  Gre'vy  elected, 
77;  Sadi-Carnot  elected,  221. 
Press,  prosecutions  of,  71 ;  law,  119. 
Prevost-Paradol,  defines  a  good  citi- 
zen, 15. 
Priests,  intermeddling  of,  284. 
Prince  Imperial,  his  majority,  41. 
Princes,  expulsion  of  the,  209. 
Protection,  247  seq. 
Protectionist  law,  first,  152. 
Protectorate,  121, 190  seq. 
Proust,  Antonin,  100,  228. 
Prussian  plan  for  new  campaign,  92. 
Public  opinion  in  France,  60. 
Public  worship,  directors  of,  275. 
Pupils,  in  schools,  332. 

Quertier,  M.  Pouyer,  22. 

Radical  platform,  a,  202. 

Railways,  contracts  for,  142;  pur- 
chase of,  144 ;  393. 

RampoUa,  Cardinal,  295. 

Ranc,  M.,  33,  37. 

Raoul-Duval,  M.,  210. 

Raspail,  M.,  63. 

Reinach,  Baron,  256,  257. 

Religion,  states  of,  303. 

Religious  bodies,  real  estate  of,  280; 
expulsion  of,  285. 

Remusat,  M.  de,  defeated  by  Baro- 
det,  33 ;  86. 


Renan,  Ernest,  his  work,  377  seq. 
Renault,  Leon,  72. 

Republic,   proclamation  of,  5;    the 
condition  of  its  existence,  16;  a 
true,   called    for,    30;    is    estab- 
lished, 31;    its  working  assured, 
36 ;  unwillingness  to  use  the  word, 
43 ;  obliged  to  be  careful  of  the  feel- 
ings of   neighboring  monarchies, 
79;    a    rational,    foreign   to    Bis- 
marck's mind,  88;  enters  for  the 
first  time  the  company  of  the  great 
powers,  96;    takes  advantage  of 
title-deeds  in  colonial  matters,  107, 
169;  undertakes  to  assimilate  it- 
self,  120;    colonial  work  of:    its 
grandeur  and  its  defects,  190 :  re- 
action against,  198  seq.;  finances 
of,  211 ;  "  candidate  of,"  227  ;  cele- 
brates 1789,  228  seq. ;  and  regains 
confidence    of    the    people,    233; 
electoral  victories  of,  238,  253,  266 ; 
treatment  of  officials  of,  264 ;  the 
value  of  universal  suffrage  to,  266 ; 
and  Roman  Catholicism,  272  seq.  ; 
and  the  primary  school,  27t>-278; 
and  secondary  education,  278, 279 ; 
and  higher  education,  280-283;  is 
the  centre  of  a  new  evolution,  291 ; 
is  chosen  by  the  Pope,  as  better 
than    Cffisarism,    291;     and    the 
Church :  M.  Gre'vy  on,  293 ;  Cardi- 
nal Lavigerie  approves  the,  294; 
the  French  bishops  oppose  the  Pope 
and  the,  298 ;  pontifical  strengthen- 
ing of  the,  302;  and  education,  308 
seq. ;  adopts  the  public  school,  342 
seq. ;  and  the  army,  348 ;  and  patri- 
otism, 354  seq. ;  and  standing  army, 
356  seq. ;  the  problems  of  the,  357 ; 
the  army  and  the,  357-359. 

Restoration,  the,  and  decentraliza- 
tion, 20. 

Revolution,  the  French,  228, 229. 

Ribot,  M.,  203,  240,  257,  260,  285. 

Ricard,  M.,  52. 

Rigault  de  Genouilly,  Admiral,  2. 

Right,  the,  28,  30-32,  35,  36 ;  mean- 
ing of  the  term,  46, 74,  76 ;  113,  116, 
154,  200,  203,  205,  225,  227,  255. 

Right  Centre,  meaning  of  the  term, 
46. 


428 


INDEX. 


Roche,  Jules,  240,  258,  266. 

Rochebouet,  General,  72. 

Rochefort,  Henri,  4,  5,  114,  117 ;  his 
"  revelations,"  119;  his  name, char- 
acter, and  career,  120;  205,  224, 
235,  254. 

Rod,  :6douard,  416. 

Roman  Catholic  Church,  and  the  Re- 
public, 272  seq. ;  and  the  Empire, 
272,  273;  and  education,  276-283, 
309,  310 ;  and  secondary  education, 
278,  279 ;  wealth  of  orders  of,  280 ; 
and  higher  education,  280-283 ;  con- 
gress, 282,  283,  288 ;  its  numerical 
power,  283 ;  the  Sacred  Heart,  284 ; 
zeal  against,  284;  peasants  and, 
286 ;  and  modern  life,  287 ;  and 
liberty  of  speech,  288;  in  the 
United  States,  289,  292;  strikes 
hands  with  the  Republic,  291,  294 ; 
France  the  best  field  for  new  ac- 
tion of,  292;  advice  of  M.  Grevy, 
293;  "  party,"  295;  and  socialism, 
296;  the  French  Bishops  of,  298, 
299,  and  the  Pope's  reply,  300 ;  and 
Reform,  302;  teaching  orders  of, 
312. 

Roman  Catholic,  Universities,  75 ; 
282 ;  interests,  82,  83 ;  inheritance, 
82. 

Rome,  entered  by  Victor  Emmanuel, 
23. 

Roumelia,  09. 

Roustan,  M.,  Ill,  112, 118-120. 

Rouvier,  M.,  216;  his  ministry,  217, 
218 ;  falls,  219 ;  240,  257,  266. 

Royer-CoUard,  M.,  14,  20,  335,  336. 

Russell,  Lord  Odo,  92. 

Russia,  80-82;  asks  warrant  from 
Europe,  95 ;  declares  war  on  Tur- 
key, 95 ;  defeats  Turkey  and  makes 
treaty,  95 ;  troublous  times  in,  101 ; 
goes  forward  in  Asia,  102 ;  103, 194 ; 
at  one  with  France,  246,  253,  268. 

Russo-French  understanding,  245. 

Saint-Hilaire,  Barthelemy,  100,  114, 

123,  203. 
Saint- Vallier,  M.  de,  50,  77. 
Salle,  La,  165. 
Salonica,  ^. 
San  Stefano,  treaty  of,  95. 


Savings  Bank,  259. 

Say,  Leon,  Prefect  of  the  Seine,  12; 
47,  49,  50,  52,  72,  73,  76,  97,  136, 
141,  203,  265. 

Scandals,  256-264. 

Scherer,  M.,  report,  136. 

Schneider,  M.,  2. 

Schools,  311,  320. 

Schouvaloff,  Count,  92. 

Science,  and  faith,  280,  304, 305 ;  329, 
374  seq. 

Sedan,  2,  56. 

Senate,  45 ;  suffrage,  46 ;  elections, 
50;  composition,  51 ;  success  of  its 
constitution,  58;  elections  of  Jan- 
uary 5,  1879,  74 ;  a  republican  suc- 
cess, 75 ;  threatened,  132 ;  its  calm- 
ness, 136 ;  137  ;  202,  227,  235. 

Senators,  age  for  entrance,  47 ;  for 
life,  49 ;  irremovability  discarded, 
58,  150,  227. 

September  4,  1870,  1,  25. 

Serre,  M.  de,  20. 

Seymour,  Admiral,  126. 

Sfax,  115,  116. 

Siam,  189. 

Sienkevicz,  M.,  124. 

Simon,  Jules,  4;  remark  as  to  M. 
Thiers,  29,  35;  forms  a  Cabinet, 
63 ;  a  conservative,  64 ;  resists  the 
Left,  64;  on  "ultra-montane  in- 
trigues," 68;  loses  the  confidence 
of  the  President  and  falls,  68 ;  151. 

Skobeleff,  General,  95. 

Social  Contract,  54. 

Socialism,  32,  296,  364,  366;  Lycur- 
gus'  experiment,  391 ;  universal  or 
none,  392;  real  and  sham,  393;  in 
Germany,  England,  etc.,  393,  394; 
its  progress  in  France,  394 ;  a 
socialist  party,  395;  congresses, 
397,  398,  409;  the  first  of  May, 
399 ;  strikes,  399  seq. ;  carpet-bag- 
gers, 401;  "  propaganda  by  deeds," 
402;  anarchy,  402;  absenteeism 
and  stock-jobbing,  405;  the  "pil- 
lar" of  money,  405;  the  progress 
of,  and  the  obstacles,  406 ;  "peas- 
ant property,"  408;  parties  in, 
409  seq. ;  importance  of,  and  ulti- 
mate success,  413;  professional 
associations,  413;    and  law,  414; 


INDEX. 


429 


and  conciliation,  415 ;  and  charity, 
416. 

Spain,  90, 114, 146, 194. 

Spuller,  M.,  234,  265,  269,  333,  339. 

Strikes,  227,  399  seq. 

Students,  reception  of  foreign,  231 ; 
336,341,380;  riots,  265. 

Suez  Canal,  123,  126  seq. ;  neutrali- 
zation of,  129, 157. 

Switzerland,  82. 

Syllabus,  287,  288. 

Taine,  Hippolyte,  on  science  and 
faith,  280 ;  375,  390. 

Taxes,  364. 

Teachers,  poor,  313,  314. 

Teisserenc  de  Bord,  M.,  52. 

Tel-el-Kebir,  128. 

Temple,  M.  de,  66. 

Tewfik  Pasha,  124,  125. 

Thibaudin,  General,  139,  147. 

Thiers,  his  pilgrimage,  7  ;  supersedes 
Gambetta,  13 ;  elected  many  times 
as  deputy,  14 ;  doubts  in  regard  to 
General  Councils,  22;  title  of  Pres- 
ident of  the  Republic  conferred 
upon,  24;  loses  credit,  25;  his 
character  and  work,  26  seq.,  31; 
his  meddling  in  military  affairs 
and  in  those  of  the  ministries,  28, 
29;  lukewarmness  as  to  the  Re- 
public, 29;  his  final  programme, 
30 ;  resigns  the  presidency,  35,  38, 
44;  gives  a  formula,  49;  deputy, 
51, 60 :  goes  to  London  conference, 
84. 

Thomas,  Clement,  murdered,  17. 

Tien-Tsin,  treaty  of,  184,  186. 

Tirard,  M.,  63, 136, 139,  223,  224,  234, 
240,  257. 

Tocqueville,  de,  on  religious  forms, 
290 ;  292,  347. 

Tolerance,  305. 

Tolstoy,  406. 

Tonkin,  152  seq.;  losses  in,  165  seq.; 
the  struggle  in,  180-186 ;  protecto- 
rate over,  183;  becomes  French 
possession,  186;  its  wealth,  186; 
205  seq. 

Tour  d'Auvergne,  Prince  de  la,  2. 

Trades-unions.    See  Socialism. 

Tr^veneuc,  M.  de,  22. 


Tricolor,  17,  39. 

Triple  Alliance,  32,  80, 105,  145,  245, 
251. 

Tripoli,  114. 

Trochu,  General,  2,  4,  12, 14. 

Tunis,  98,  107  seq. ;  works  on,  107; 
France  and,  108;  England  and, 
109;  Italy  and,  109;  financial  con- 
trol, 110;  anarchy  in, 111;  invaded 
and  occupied  by  French,  111 ;  mis- 
takes in.  111 ;  treaty,  112 ;  second 
expedition  to,  successful,  115 ;  cost 
of  expeditions  to,  115 ;  question  of, 
a  subject  of  excessive  hilarity  in 
Chamber,  117;  protectorate  in,  es- 
tablished with  eminent  success, 
121;  conversion  of  debt,  150;  Ger- 
many and  England  recognize 
France  in,  153 ;  190. 

Turkey,  insurrection  and  massacres, 
93  seq.;  at  war  with  Russia,  95; 
and  Tunis,  108  seq.;  194. 

"  Ultra-montane  intrigues,"  67. 
United  States,  7,  82, 194, 249, 289,  292, 

306,  347. 
Universal  Exposition  of  1878,  73,  78. 
Universal    suffrage,   154,    160,    200, 

266-268. 
University  of  Lille,  68;  of  France, 

323,  331,  332,  336  seq. 
Universities,  75,  278,  282. 

Vaillant,  M.,  412. 

Vendome  Column,  destroyed,  17. 

Versailles,  treaty  signed  at,  23. 

Victor  Emmanuel,  enters  Rome,  23 ; 
death,  74,  298. 

Victoria,  Queen,  92. 

Vinoy,  General,  his  strange  com- 
mands, 18. 

Vogii^,  Comte  de,  77. 

Vogii^,  M.  de,  355,  379. 

Waddington,  M.,  20,  50,  52,  73,  336; 
at  Congress  of  Berlin,  96;  his 
family  and  career,  97;  123. 

Waldeck-Rousseau,  M.,  133,  139. 

Wallon,  M.,  47. 

Wallon  amendment,  the,  31 ;  adopted, 
45. 


430 


INDEX. 


War,  and  Parliament,  112, 115,  117 ; 
Alexandria  bombarded,  126;  in 
Tonkin,  148,  155  seq.,  180-186;  in 
Africa,  Hindustan,  and  America, 
165  seq.;  cost  of,  in  Tonkin,  186; 
in  Dahomey,  252,  253;  ancient 
nations  and,  349  seq.;  a  trade, 
362. 

William,  Emperor,  87,  241,  242. 

Wilson,  M.,  147,  219. 

Wolseley,  Lord,  128. 


Woman  suffrage,  57. 

Wood,  Mr.,  English  agent  in  Tunis, 

109  seq. 
Workingmen's,  pilgrimages,  296-298, 

congresses,  397,  398,  409. 

Year  III.,  constitution  of,  64 ;  organic 

laws  still  survive,  54. 
Year  "VH.,  constitution  of,  54. 

Zola,  i^mile,  379. 


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